


The Burning Cold

by Domina_Justicia



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/F, Slow Burn, Violence, non-canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2018-01-03
Packaged: 2018-08-15 03:48:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8041366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Domina_Justicia/pseuds/Domina_Justicia
Summary: Lauren - recently tossed into the Commonwealth via Vault-Tec's cryogenics - must traverse the new and even deadlier Commonwealth in search of her missing son. If that wasn't bad enough for the ex-lawyer to deal with, she must also fight the demons that rage within herself as well as those which plague the wasteland and stand in her way of finding Shaun.On the other side of the wasteland however, a reporter is hunting down her own demons with nothing but a pen and the hopes of vanishing the Commonwealth's boogyman once and for all.Yet an odd twist of fate finds these two women crossing paths at the most unlikely of times...





	1. Chapter 1

It was loud, so loud. Like a crack of thunder and the split from a tank firing a missile all rolled into one and doubled tenfold. The heat, the _searing_ heat that swept up from the blast of light and colour in the distance was still felt despite the freezing cold in Lauren’s bones as she struggled against the glass. People were outside her pod, talking, standing, _watching_ as one in a suit tried to take a hold of her baby. Nate wouldn’t let go, just as Lauren wouldn’t stop trying to break the glass on the damn door that just _would not_ open. There was talking, then there was screaming and Lauren couldn’t tell if it were her own or that of Nate’s or that of Shaun’s but then there was another bang and everything just _stopped_.

The noise had split through Lauren’s head, echoing all around her, leaving her gasping and stunned as she watched Nate’s body slump back into his pod. The right side of his face and his pod was splattered with blood, the holes in his head leaking blood that trailed down his jaw, down his neck and down his chest as his pod was closed back up and another face clouded Lauren’s vision. She screamed at him, never before feeling such a rage as she felt then, the pain and adrenalin masking the pain in her knuckles as she punched at the glass with all her strength. She desperately willed for it to break and to have her fist go through and land its mark on the bald scumbag with a scar down his face but it just _wouldn’t fucking break_.

Still screaming and pounding at the glass, she felt the cold sweep over her again but she’ll be dammed if she just gave up. Ice soon clouded the glass, the last image she could see was Nate’s lifeless eyes staring upward as her limbs grew numb and her breath slowed until she was lost to the cold once more.

 

 ***************************

 

“Nat!” The reporter called, cussing to herself at how deaf her little sister could be. “ _NAT!_ ”

“What?” finally came the little girl’s reply as she pulled shut the door to the Publick Occurrences, a stack of paper cradled under her arm. “Is it broken again?” The little girl stood rooted to the spot for a moment, her eyes wandering the house but not finding any sign of Piper. After a moment, the reporter poked her head around the printing press to shoot Nat an incredulous look.

“No, I just decided tinker with it for kicks.” She replied sarcastically which was met with a huff and a roll of the little girl’s eyes. “I’m stuck.”

Nat dropped the stack of paper onto the table before walking to her bigger sister. She was crouched behind the printing press, her arm disappearing inside the giant machine leaving her at an odd angle between the press and the wall of concrete behind her. “Whaddaya mean you’re stuck?”

Piper Wright breathed a heavy sigh and wriggled her trapped left arm for effect, the press shaking with it. “I mean the ‘help me get my arm out or I’m totally gonna kick your butt when I’m free’ kinda stuck.” Natalie regarded her sister, a sly smile playing on her lips which caused Piper to narrow her eyes. “Nat…whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it.”

The grin only grew wider as the girl leant against the press with a devious giggle, swiping Piper’s cap from her head and plopping it on her own in the process. “Okay, here’s the deal. I’ll help you out, _buuuut-_ ” Piper rolled her eyes and tried again to pull herself free, but was well and truly stuck. “You tell me where your stash of sugar bombs are.”

Piper gasped and then gave a playful growl as she reached for her sister who easily skipped away. “I will _never_ tell you.”

“Well I guess you won’t get free then, huh?” Nat giggled again, sitting on the table and swinging her legs tauntingly. “What’s your freedom worth to you, Piper?”

The reporter narrowed her eyes and shot a dark but playful look to her little sister from around the press. “I’m a little worried about your methods of extracting information, Natalie.”

“I learn from the best.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“No, I think it’s _you_ who’s going nowhere.” Nat grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. “Out with it, or I’ll start tickling.”

“You wouldn’t…” Piper growled slowly, eyes narrowed and burning into the little Wright who stood slowly. “Nat.” One step. “ _Nat._ ” Two steps. Piper became frantic now. “ _Natalie Wright_ , don’t you _dare_.” Three steps.

“Where are they, Piper?” Piper started wriggling desperately, her little sister now hidden behind the printing press so she couldn’t see when the onslaught was going to happen. “Where’s the stash?”

“I’ll never tell you!”

She did, after an indeterminate amount of time being subjected to the pain and humiliation of being stuck and helpless against the onslaught of tickles and poking fingers that left in her a fit of hysterics. Oh she’ll get her back alright, if it’s the last thing the reporter does.

 

****************************

 

Horror. Horror was all she felt. Faces frozen as masks of death behind glass in endless rows all around her glared and watched as she stumbled through the halls like a newborn babe, clutching the burning cold ring of her spouse to her chest where a seed of ice was forever planted. Lauren was panting, her mind and heart racing as she desperately tried to banish the echoing gunshot from her mind. _And that_ face. _That damn face._ The woman from cryogenic pod seven braced herself against a steel table, her mind reeling from remembering the mug of the man who killed Nate. _I’m going to find you,_ she vowed, clutching the ring even tighter. _I’m going to find you and kill you after you give me back my son. I swear to God I will._

A rustling noise caught her attention and her eyes quickly spotted the carapace of a giant roach scuttling towards her. Upon the desk she leant against was a black baton which Lauren used to spatter the roach with, her face grimacing when she saw the green substance explode from the disgusting creature. Clouds grew from her breaths as she stared down at her kill, her stomach rolling with confusion and the knowledge that something was definitely wrong here. There was not a single sound in the vault nor was there any sign of _human_ life.

Lauren pushed away from the desk, her legs slowly regaining their strength as the shaking stopped and her brain finally began cranking its gears. Room after room was empty, barren, walls leaking water from the overhead pipes which had layers of ice that were also slowly melting. As Lauren cautiously walked through the tunnels, each drip on her skin was like a bolt of fire. It seemed to burn, even when the droplets landed on her vault suit she could still feel the burning cold like it were a bullet piercing her skin. There were half a dozen more roaches she killed before she finally came across the room she was looking for but also dreaded finding. Vault 111’s entrance.

The Sole Survivor slowly made her way forward, being careful not to step on the bones of Vault-Tec staff who had perished years before she awoke. One of the skeletons had a Pip-Boy and gingerly, Lauren removed the bare bones and replaced the machine on her left wrist to fire it up. The screen came to life – much to Lauren’s amazement – and Vault Boy was there, winking at her as the old machine slowly hummed back to life. Lauren soon figured out the terminal for the vault’s door required the code from the machine and in less than thirty seconds, the massive steel door was pulled back and rolled to the side with the loud screeching of metal on metal, a blinding light glaring into the Sole Survivor’s eyes as she stepped forward. The 10mm pistol she had found in one of the rooms felt heavy in her hand as she walked down the metal catwalk, but her mind was on the fact that it only felt like minutes since she, Nate and Shaun had walked through after witnessing the nuclear detonation. As she stood on the elevator’s platform with her eyes staring up and into the darkness above, she wondered what she would find outside. Would there even be other people? She knew a group of _someones_ broke in and stole her son, but how long ago was that? Did it just happen or was that years ago? Is that why the skeletons of Vault-Tec staff lay all through the halls of the vault? Did they get killed because someone wanted to steal her son?

Frustrated, Lauren shook her head as if to shake away the bad nightmare she wished she was in and slammed her fist down on the red button of the elevator. For a split second, terror gripped her heart again as the massive lift remained motionless, however after a few moments of silence the old mechanism roared to life and soon she was being lifted to the surface. There was a voice over that thanked her for choosing Vault-Tec and something else that was lost on Lauren for as she clutched the ring from Nate, her mind was already churning over the idea of hunting down the bald man with the scar on his face.

 

****************************

 

 _Monsters in the Shadows: Are We Really Safe?_ Piper looked over her freshly printed stack of articles with a sense of contentment and smug satisfaction. For days now, the Mayor of Diamond City had been denying any existence of super mutants, gunners and synths that lurk outside the city walls, even going so far as to not allow any of Diamond City Security a chance to talk to the reporter about such creatures. Of course she knew why and of course she tried to get them to see reason, but _of course_ they wouldn’t speak and so she was left with only one other option.

“How long will you be gone?” Natalie asked quietly, her chin the same height as the top of the printing press. Piper gave an encouraging smile – at least what she thought was one – and playfully ruffled her little sister’s hair.

“Not long, just have to be out there long enough to prove that the Mayor is lying again.”

Nat’s eyes narrowed as she scooped up a pile of the freshly printed papers. “Doing _what_ exactly?”

Piper herself didn’t know _exactly_ what taking a trip to the outside world would prove, but she knew she just had to do it and that she would know when she found what she was looking for. “I promise I won’t go looking for trouble, Nat. I’ll be careful. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of days at the most.”

The little Wright groaned and trudged off towards her wooden box, stepping up onto it instead of her usual giddy superhero jump that left Piper cringing and waiting for the box to collapse. It had happened once before and needless to say she was in stitches from laughing so hard at the stunned look on Nat’s face as she ended up on her backside, but Piper could tell her sister’s caution was not out of what could happen to the box, but at what could happen to _Piper_ outside the safety of the Wall. Nat had more than ample reasons to worry, for the last time Piper came back from one of her expeditions she had almost lost her arm due to an infection from a Bloodbug bite. The time before _that_ was when she returned with advanced radiation poisoning from being a prisoner of the Children of Atom who also gave her a shiny new title of one of Atom’s official acolytes. There was even a time where she almost became a prisoner of the Gunners but was thankfully saved by a group of a raiders too stupid to realise they were vastly outnumbered and outgunned. During the firefight, the reporter managed to scurry away, the thought that that was the first time she was glad to see raiders trailing through her mind all the way back home. So of course, Nat couldn’t be consoled by Piper telling her not to worry and so the reporter never bothered, simply telling her instead that she will be careful which – despite the vast amount of evidence against her – she always was.

Slipping on her brave face, securing her trusty pens to her wrist and tucking away her 10mm with a small amount of supplies in her coat, Piper quickly exited back out from her office and pulled Nat in for a tight embrace. “Love you sis.” She murmured quietly, hugging Nat firmly who hugged back just as tightly. “I’ll see you in a few days. Just try not to burn the house down with your cooking.”

Natalie just scoffed as she watched her sister slowly walk away towards the stairs, wondering silently if she would ever see her again. “At least _my_ cooking won’t give me food poisoning.”

Piper turned around, a large grin on her face despite the fact that she tried to act hurt. “Oh you wound me with your cruel words Natalie!”

The laughter of her little sister stayed with her until she passed through the gates of Diamond City, the sudden and often not-so-far-away bouts of gunfire quickly served to drown out all thoughts of peace and the easy bantering the two sisters shared. Now, it was just Piper and whatever the hell else was wondering the rubble of a long-lost civilisation.

 

****************************

 

The light from the sun was blinding, but Lauren didn’t care for she had seen much worse. She had seen the light from the beast that blasted across her country, she had seen the plumes of fire erupt from said beast and heard the screams of the skeletons that lay at the lip of Vault 111. Her eyes scanned across the devastation, the destruction one simple moment had bestowed upon the earth. The lack of green was the most apparent to the woman out of time. The blue from the sky remained so, but its counterpart was long lost for the trees were bare and the grass was nothing but dirt and dust and ashes. Lauren stepped forward and off the platform, an overwhelming fear bundling up inside her. _What the hell am I doing? Why didn’t I just put a bullet in my head and be done with it all?_

But of course Shaun was still out there right? Somewhere among the rubble from the houses of Sanctuary maybe? Or perhaps in the heart of Boston where the crumbling towers stood upon the horizon like sentinels guarding the long lost past within their walls? Lauren narrowed her eyes as she spotted the glint of a figure that floated across the road in Sanctuary, its familiar hulk filling her chest with a small pinch of hope. The Sole Survivor quickly sprinted down the dirt path, taking care to not disturb the bones that lay across the ground who were once her neighbours. She wondered briefly if the Vault-Tec representative was among them, but quickly shoved the thought aside. Her footfalls on the wooden bridge shattered the eerie silence, even the slow running current of the river below seemed to be forever muted. Finally, the Sole Survivor from Vault 111 rounded the corner and sprinted towards her crumbling house whose mortgage had once hung over her head. “Codsworth?!” she called out, desperate for a friendly face, a helping metallic hand in Armageddon. “Codsworth is that you?”

“Mum?” A distinctly British voice called out in reply. Lauren stepped through the threshold of her own home and laid eyes on the Mr Handy who floated just in front of her. His optical units flexed, growing large and then small as he examined her before finally he bobbed forward almost in hesitation. “M-mum? Is that really you?” his metallic voice broke halfway through which had tears surface from Lauren’s eyes.

“Oh Codsworth, yes honey. It’s me. Vault-Tec froze us in these...these pods of some kind. I…I can’t believe you’re still here!” Lauren sobbed, desperately wiping away the tears that fell from her cheeks. Quickly, the Mr Handy retrieved a napkin from somewhere on his metal unit and dutifully handed it over.

“Well now, I guess this makes you two hundred years late for dinner!” the robot chuckled before finally his tone grew serious. He waited for his mistress to take a hold of herself before continuing. “Mum, where is Sir? And young Shaun? Are they with you?” The robot could not read the wave of grief that washed over Lauren, whose eyes darkened in pain and misery and whose face turned into a slight scowl at the thought of the man who killed her husband and stole her son.

“No. They killed him, they _killed_ Nate and took Shaun. Did you see anyone Codsworth? Did anyone come by here?” Lauren’s tone was laced with desperate hope, but such hope was misplaced for the robot knew nothing and instead bantered on about some kid wearing a Halloween costume. The Sole Survivor recoiled at the thought that she cared not for another child but her own, but nevertheless she remained silent as Codsworth went on his posh little rant about all the things that were now wrong with this new world. Lauren was just glad _someone_ she knew survived and that she had a friend after so much that had happened, even if that friend was still harping on about a long lost soul.

“Codsworth, are you okay?”

He was just about to reply when gunfire cut him off and a bullet ricocheted off of his rusty steel hull. Lauren ducked quickly out of the doorway and watched as the robot butler charged out of the house yelling politely about the assaulter’s lack of manners. There were more pop-popping’s that shattered the almost tranquillity of Sanctuary’s forgotten streets and then there was a hissing and a roar, prompting Lauren to poke her head around the corner to see what was happening. She was amazed when she saw a stream of fire shoot forth from her Mr Handy which set a man ablaze who had just tried punching the robot. Within minutes, the Mr Hany had finished off what Lauren counted to be about five men but there were still gunshots that sounded in the distance.

“Mum!” Codsworth called, floating around the corner the next second. “I hope you don’t mind, mum, but I have _reappropriated_ the supplies of a few ill-mannered neighbours.” The butler then passed over to Lauren a bundle of leather and straps. “Put these on, mum, then we’ll go find our young Shaun!”

Lauren wasn’t sure of the robot’s mindset – if you could call it that – but nevertheless decided that what he said made sense. Kind of. She doubted leather would do anything in the way of stopping a bullet but there still existed a haze in her mind that perhaps none of this was real, so what the hell. Lauren quickly strapped on the armour over her vault suit and followed Codsworth down the street, her 10mm clutched tightly in her hands as she scanned the area. As hard as it was to see everything in its current state, it was harder to try and ignore it and instead search for the enemies that were apparently hiding in the shadows.

“Mum, there’s some chaps down in Concord who might be able to help us. Perhaps we should look there?”

“Yes.” Lauren said, swallowing a lump in her throat. They were just coming up to the bridge leading into Sanctuary when she spotted a heavily decomposing body floating down the river. “C-Codsworth?”

“Yes mum?” The robot paused and turned around to look at her expectantly.

“Is…is this real?”

“Why yes mum, I’m sorry to say. I understand it must be hard coming back into a world that’s two hundred years in the future, but do know that I will remain by your side _all_ the way, mum.”

“Thank you, Codsworth.” Lauren whispered and started walking, her eyes avoiding at all costs the body that passed them below.

There was a smell that seemed persistent, a smell that had nothing to do with the rotting flesh of the person she just watched float through the surprisingly clear water. It was a bitter, repugnant smell that reminded her so heavily of the smell of the heat that rushed outward from the atomic bomb. Quickly, she glanced towards where the light and heat had exploded from and was half expecting to see it all unfold again – only this time she wasn’t even _near_ the safety of the vault – and was unexplainably relieved when the sky remained blue and she and Codsworth continued on their merry way. In front stood the Red Rocket Truck Stop which somehow remained standing and apparently no worse for wear despite the lack of glass. Lauren was about to turn to ask Codsworth a question, but that question was quickly lost when she spotted a figure which came barrelling over.

She raised her gun and was about to pull the trigger before she heard a happy bark. “Not to worry mum! I will keep you safe from this monstrosity!”

Lauren paused, recognising a German Shepard who bounded over with a lolling tongue and a wagging furry tail. “Codsworth, wait.” The dog trotted forward as the robot butler stilled, his optical units tracking the dog as it cocked its head at Lauren. “Is…is it friendly?”

“Mum, I do stress an exercise of caution.”

Warm, brown, innocent eyes fixed on Lauren as she knelt down and offered her free hand for the dog to sniff. She remembered reading somewhere not to stare a dog in the eyes and that if one should ever attack, she should pull the front two legs out sidewards causing irreparable damage to the chest cavity, most probably causing death. Such thoughts regarding _this_ dog however seemed almost repulsive as he sniffed and licked at the back of her hand and pushed his head into her hand for a pat.

“Are you all alone out here, boy?” Lauren said quietly, brushing her hand along the dog’s fur who seemed happy with all the attention. He whimpered and barked a quiet ‘ _roof_ ’ before bouncing around in a circle with a raging tail that refused to quit wagging. “What do you think, Codsworth? Room for one more?”

“Why, if you believe he is not infected with _rabies_ or poses a danger to young Shaun when we find him, I don’t believe I see any problem, mum. After all, you and Sir _were_ planning on adopting a furry friend before…b-before…”

Lauren clenched her jaw and rose, ignoring the Mr Handy’s last comment as she scanned around them.

“We’ll keep him around for as long as he wants, then. Come on, Concord is just down that road.”

She set off without another word, her lips pressed into a firm line as she squinted in the bright light of the sun. The road was cracked and uneven, her booted feet catching on the uneven chunks of asphalt, the sound of which echoing off of Boston’s eerie silence. They had just passed Red Rocket, the dog perking up at something before an incessant buzzing sound rang out. Instinctually, Lauren froze and lifted her gun right when two giant pink things oddly shaped like mosquitos lifted off from the corpse of what looked like a heavily decomposed cow. Without hesitating, she fired, because something looking like _that_ is certainly not something that’s friendly, especially when the dog himself lunged forward in such a way as he did. Codsworth swiped at one which tried to attack at Lauren’s side, his buzzsaw slicing the thing in half with barely the effort it would have taken to raise it. “Thanks, Codsworth.” Lauren breathed, eyeing the corpse of the one he had killed before watching the dog tear apart the other with his teeth.

“No need mum! I trust you are unharmed?” He dutifully replied and awaited an answer that never came. Instead, he turned to his master quizzically. “Mum?”

“Wh-what the hell?” Lauren wasn’t looking at the two carcasses that nearly drained her of her blood. Instead she was looking at the corpse of something bigger but no less the shade of pink. “Codsworth?”

“Yes mum?”

“Cows survived the bomb too?” she asked, her eyes taking in the two heads. _Did two die here?_ She gingerly moved forward, pinching her nose against the smell of its rotting flesh. Her newfound canine companion however didn’t seem at all phased by the revolting aroma of rotting, radioactive flesh.

“I believe their ancestors did, mum. This is what the local folk apparently call a _Brahmin_ , although I could be mistaken. They _were_ trying to fight me with sticks after all.” The robot scoffed and then added. “I remain to be rather _muddled_ with their conclusion that I was there to steal their livestock. The _audacity_ of some people still astounds me even after all this time.”

The Mr Handy hovered and watched his mistress as she further inspected the corpse. He would ask her what she was hoping to find – Shaun couldn’t possibly be hiding in there right? – but instead he remained quiet, respecting the fact that perhaps his mistress’s mind needn’t be bothered by retrospection regarding her current mental health.

Lauren meanwhile was already trying to figure out if she was going insane. _Two headed cows? Giant mosquitoes? Giant roaches? Oh God. What’s next? Giant ants? Spiders?_ She shivered at her thoughts and rose from her crouch, wiping the light sheen of sweat from her brow. _Was it always this hot?_ With a heavy sigh, Lauren took the offered water from her Mr Handy and downed almost half the bottle in one swig. “Thank you Codsworth, I have a feeling I’m going to be relying a lot on you in the future.”

“Happy to be of service, mum! Let’s just hope there’s no more surprises on our way to finding young Shaun…wherever he could be.”


	2. Battle for Concord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lauren ventures into Concord where of course she is met by a hail of bullets and the last remaining Mintueman, along with a surprise guest who makes a rather unwelcome appearance...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got around to finishing this much later than I initially wanted, but nevertheless here it is! Enjoy! :D

Panting and blinking away the blood that ran down her forehead, Lauren sprinted up the rickety old staircase of the museum, trying to keep her head low but her eyes up for any attackers. Puffs of dust exploded from the wall on her right as she made it up the left flight, Codsworth and her newfound dog trailing just behind her as she haphazardly tried to wind up the laser musket. _How is anyone supposed to use these damn things?!_

“Quick! Get her!” One of the raiders shouted, to which Lauren responded by pointing the laser musket and pressing the trigger in the hopes of a lucky shot. A strong red laser split through the museum with a crackle like lightning and jarred Lauren’s frame as it collided with a raider’s chest. Quickly, she ducked into one of the doorways and tried to wind it up again, her muscles screaming from the exertion as the remaining raiders scurried about the museum. In front of her was a rundown room with a broken desk in the far left corner, piles of debris and papers scattered about depicting both the frenzy of the nuclear war and the comparatively small battle she now found herself in. She looked to the left, where the dog kept pointing his nose and heard voices down the hall that stretched for about twenty feet, a portion of a patriotic painting visible in the light of a lantern. Her eyes flicked down and she spotted a cylindrical gas tank laying horizontally upon one of the exhibits. “Codsworth, watch this door honey. I’ll check out the hallway.” His polite reply was lost on Lauren’s ears as she crouched and carefully made her way down to where the dim light flickered, watching the shadows of the raiders move along the painting. They were talking about bailing, running away and finding a new crew to roll with. _Great. There’s more of these bastards out there. Just what I need._

Lauren stopped about halfway down the hall, feeling the breath of the dog who snuck behind her on her neck as she weighed the odds as to whether that gas tank was full or not. It looked to be fairly intact at least, the colour a faded and dusted red but there weren’t any visible damage. So Lauren took the chance. She carefully laid the musket down on the floor in front of her, preferring to use her 10mm pistol instead since it had little kickback and faster fire rate just in case the tank was empty and a bunch of raiders decided to charge her from around the corner. She also set down a Molotov cocktail, a lighter in her left hand ready to go once she made the shot. _Here goes nothing._

One pull of the trigger and the metallic sound of bullet piercing metal rung out in the hallway, the shadows of the raiders spinning around at the sound and all conversation immediately stopped. Two seconds later, a bottle with a burning rag at its end exploded over the leaking hole of the gas tank and promptly set off an ear shattering explosion. Lauren kept her head down, gun clutched tightly in her hand and only looked up when the heat subsided and sounds of falling bits of metal slowed. Half of the painting was scorched, bits of red and silver metal were embedded in the wooden walls and floor of the museum and the ancient exhibits themselves were on fire. With a glance back to Codsworth who watched both her and the doorway of his post, Lauren crept forward and peeked over the exhibits. Three raiders lay dead and burning, large metal chunks protruding from their chests and faces, making Lauren gag. _It was necessary. Totally necessary. If they weren’t going to kill me, they were going to kill others. They were bad people._

She waved over Codsworth and, with the dog by her side, quickly moved around the disgusting scene of burning corpses and climbed the stairs in the hallway behind the mural. Lauren knew beyond a doubt that the smell of what she had just done would not be leaving her for a long, long time.

Shouts were heard from the other side of the wall that stood to Lauren’s right, little holes in said wall allowed glimpses of two raiders trying with everything they had to break down what Lauren assumed – from memory of the museum’s layout – was a door to a staff room. _I’m going to hell for this_ , she thought as she carefully crept toward the largest of the holes. She quietly positioned its barrel in the hole, aimed and then pulled the trigger. The crackle was muffled by the density of the wall but she could tell the beam hit her target from the cries of surprise and pain which pierced both through the wall and through Lauren’s soul. The red laser inside the musket died out and she knew it was out of cells, so the fate of both herself and her dog, along with Codsworth of course, now lay upon a 10mm pistol and her smarts.

She rounded the corner with her gun drawn, her shoulder obscured by the doorway and found one of the raiders crawling away from the door he was trying to break down, the other raider lay smouldering and slumped in the corner. Bloodshot eyes met hers, both making her skin crawl and her stomach drop. It was easy to shoot at shadows that shot right back, at figures clad in metal bars and bits and pieces of animal hide that scarcely looked human, but it was different when faced with the prospect of shooting between two eyes that locked with your own. Lauren noticed many things about the man’s face, a freckle above his bloodied left eyebrow, green eyes filled with pain and fear, a nose clearly broken one too many times. He would have been somewhat attractive had he not been a thieving, murderous low life sack of shit.

A beam of red split through the museum once more, the harsh crack was loud in Lauren’s ears as the face she had just looked at disintegrated into a pile of smouldering ash. She glanced up to see the door now open with a dark skinned man and a smoking laser musket standing in the centre. Over his shoulder, another man tinkered away frantically at a terminal. “You’re not one of them.” The darker man said carefully, his even darker eyes pinning Lauren to the spot. The dog of hers trotted up to him, his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth with a happy wag of his tail as he greeted the man with a sideways cock of his head.

“No, I’m not. What did they want with you?” Lauren replied just as carefully, her gun still in hand. She could hear the thrusters of Codsworth idling behind her, the whirring of his subunits and optical appendages as they both studied the man dressed in a dirty colonial duster. He hesitated a second, before lowering the musket and politely nodding his chin once.

“What raiders do, I suppose. Murder, pillage, take what they can and then leave a pile of corpses in their wake.” He blinked once, his hand coming to wipe away sweat from his brow before continuing. “They’ve been tracking us for days, picking us off one by one until they cornered us here.” He paused for a second, dark eyes narrowing slightly as he watched Lauren take a few steps closer. “Thank you for helping us. I wouldn’t be asking if I had any other option, but would you consider helping us more?”

Lauren glanced over her shoulder at Codsworth before turning back to face the man. “Of course.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Why did I agree to this?_ Lauren growled in her head as the frame of the power armour came around her body. She felt as though she couldn’t breathe, the constricting metal feeling so much worse to her than what she thought a coffin would feel like. _Goddammit. Get it together. Nate used these all the time, you’ll be fine_.

“Mum? Do be careful out there with all that riff raff. I…I don’t want to lose you too.” Codsworth said from behind her. His words sliced through her heart, making her at once thankful that the suit came with a helmet so her expression could not be read by the robot.

“I’ll be fine, honey. Just stay with Preston and his people and make sure to keep them safe in there.”

She didn’t wait for Codsworth to reply, instead she marched up to the crashed Vertibird and took to tearing off the minigun with a single pull of the power armour, securing another large barrel of ammunition to on the back of her power armour. She sighed, ignoring the blinking lights on the helmet’s visor and peered over to the building opposite hers. Lauren had never used a minigun before, but hell, before today, she’d never used a _gun_ before and has managed to kill at least a dozen people. Not that she ever wanted to but now it was beyond necessary, so how different can a minigun be? It’s just faster and heavier right?

A head popped up from behind an air-conditioner’s cooling unit on the rooftop opposite, his pipe pistol raised and about to shoot at Preston on the balcony before he spotted the lumbering frame of power armour wielding a minigun. As he opened his mouth to yell something, Lauren compressed the metal finger on the trigger – which was hard to get there in the first place – and after almost two seconds of whirring up, the minigun spewed forth a hail of bullets that ate through the metal cooling unit. A spray of blood and bone and God knows what else erupted from the man who barely managed a gurgled scream before collapsing into a puddle of his own flesh and blood.

A wave of nausea rolled over Lauren who desperately fought to get herself under control, the metal finger now held away from the trigger. She stared forward, breathing heavily, but the crack of Preston’s red laser split through the air and the sound of pop popping’s from the raiders’ guns on the street below forced Lauren to get her head back into the game. _It’s a different world now. You have to survive, for Shaun, for Nate…for everything._

Without thinking about it further Lauren leapt off the building, glad that she was right about her power armour’s ability to absorb the impact when she landed with a spine jarring boom. The rest seemed to go by in a blur. Her finger depressed the trigger once more and stayed there as she pushed on down the street, seeing strikes of red lightning impact the bodies all around her who she wasn’t fast enough to shoot down herself. There was only three raiders left who were taking shelter behind a burnt out car, the bullets from their guns barely getting close enough to pepper Lauren with dust from where they impacted the ground and thankfully not _her_ , when her minigun fell silent. It whirred but no bullets came out. _Dammit!_

She cursed herself for forgetting perhaps the most important thing in a gunfight – conserve bullets and make sure not to run out in a compromising situation. But there was just three raiders with shitty aim and with Preston firing from behind her, she took the chance to reload. The minigun dropped to the ground as the knee of her power armour made contact with the road, her arm reaching haphazardly around to retrieve the roll of ammunition from the rear of the suit. But that was when the ground exploded, or so it seemed because all she saw was dust and a large metal grate being flung skyward from the street in front of her. A roar that sent chills up her spine rattled the metal of the suit and now more than ever, Lauren wished she knew what she was doing with this _fucking_ minigun.

She got the expended cartridge free and damn near threw it in her haste to reload, glancing up regularly to see a hulking beast spring forth from the grate. The raiders stopped shooting and instead started screaming, rattling Lauren even further as she desperately tried to get the gun working again. For some reason, she just _knew_ the armour would not be enough to stop that thing. Whatever it was.

A crack of lightning hit the beast between its horns and to Lauren’s amazement, the thing didn’t drop dead but instead lunged for the nearest raider. She looked away but couldn’t block out the crunch of bone, no matter how hard she tried to focus on trying to fit the damn cartridge into the minigun. With a frustrated growl, Lauren threw caution to the wind and slammed the damn thing into the gun, hearing a click that she desperately hoped meant her success. _One way to find out_.

She pushed up from her crouch, minigun in her hands as the _thing_ bit in half another raider, the other two now strewn across the street with their innards splayed everywhere. She pressed the trigger, stepping backwards towards the museum while hoping she didn’t just sign her own death warrant because the beast now spotted her, his eyes feeling as though they could see straight through her soul. But just as it roared almost in greeting, the minigun whined and seemed to almost roar back as it fired streaks of bullets, most of which landing their mark. Puffs of blood and scales blew off from the torso of the beast and it roared again, shouldering another blast of red lightning before charging forward towards Lauren. Her ragged breathing echoed in the helmet of her power armour as she watched the beast throw away the burnt out car that separated him from her, the foot of her power armour catching a crack in the road and sent her stumbling backwards. By the sheer grace of whatever the hell was watching over her, she managed to catch her footing and kept the metal finger pressed firmly on the trigger, the giant lizard beast _still_ advancing despite the bullets punching into its hide. Another crackle of red lightning split through the air but missed its mark, landing just to the right of the beast as it lunged forward.

Time seemed to slow almost to a crawl. The beast was suspended in the air with its claws outstretched towards Lauren, its gaping mouth roaring with rows of razor sharp teeth on display as the minigun in her hands kept spitting lead with innumerable flashes of light. Lauren couldn’t think of how terrified she was, she didn’t have time to before the beast made contact and slammed her down on the ground. The minigun fell silent as it was flung from her grasp, the rear metal plates of her armour cracking from the force of the impact on the road but to Lauren’s terror, the beast was still on top of her. Its jaws clamped around the helmet of the suit and she was so sure this would be her end, if not because of the teeth that pierced the metal either side of her face but because of the fact that her only gun was now gone and all she had to her name was a pair of metal fists. In a last ditch effort she tried punching at the thing now towering above her, its blood seeping through the gaps in her power armour as she tried desperately to find a weak spot. Another crackle of red lightning blasted the beast, hitting it square in the back of its head which only made it angrier. Its jaws released her helmet but not before one of its teeth grazed up the left side of Lauren’s face, splitting her open like a hot knife would pierce through butter. It barely missed her actual eye and she screamed as she realised the helmet was torn _completely off_ and barely managed to block a swipe of its claws with the arm of her suit that was destined to take her head clean off. She kicked up at the beast’s chest, the added strength of the hulking frame propelling the beast back a few metres but it wasn’t enough. The minigun lay twenty feet to her right and the beast was merely its own arm’s length in front of her. She scrambled to her feet just as the beast lunged forward once more, barely managing to dive forward toward the minigun while avoiding its oversizes claws. Lauren ran as fast as she could make the armour go, not daring to look back because she knew there could only be two possible outcomes; either she makes it in time or she dies right before and ideally, she doesn’t want the last thing she sees to be that ugly fucker behind her.

The street lit up once more as another crackle of Preston’s musket split through the air, the impact sounding on something hard _right behind her_ , but nevertheless she kept going, feeling the pounding of her heart and the sharp breath that was tearing through her lungs almost in time with the pounds of the creature’s footfalls. Finally she reached the gun and just as she picked it up in a death grip, the beast swiped once again and sent her tumbling onto her side, the minigun still thankfully in hand. It roared almost in anger and charged forward, its piercing eyes set on Lauren as she lifted the gun and fired. She screamed as the beast kept coming despite the bullets tearing at its chest, its bloodied teeth targeting her exposed head. Another crackle of lightning split and she damn near shoved the barrel of the minigun into its gut as it fell upon her, the jaws lined with innumerable teeth coming around her head again and just as she closed her eyes with an image of Shaun and Nate in her mind, both the beast and her gun feel silent.

She opened her eyes at the steady warm drips on her face and stared down the dark gullet of the beast, its teeth framing her head yet the jaws were lifeless, dead. She pushed it off, freeing herself from its mouth and weight and gazed up at the clear blue sky, tears now flowing freely in relief and terror. From somewhere above she could hear Preston yelling something but all she could think about was how very close she came to death. Just a second longer and that thing would’ve bitten her head clean off and her search for Shaun would be over, damming him to wherever it is he was taken to. She shuddered at the thought, at the warm blood on her face and body and pushed herself up from the pavement. The street around her was littered with bodies from fallen raiders, pools of drying blood glistening in the sunlight and running through the cracks of the once flawless road. She went to wipe away the blood on her face but remembered her hulking exoskeleton and swiftly exited, fighting back the tears and sobs that just kept wreaking havoc on her already tired chest. When she saw the damage on the armour, the claw marks that split metal and came very close to rupturing the fusion core in the back, her legs buckled under her and she swiftly sank to her knees. _What has this world come to? People trying to kill each other….those…those_ things _trying eat people!_

Now more than ever she was filled with a wave determination and desperation to find her son, to find the boy stolen from his father’s arms and brought into a world where beasts like _that_ and people like the ones she’s had to kill who behaved no better than the thing that tried to kill her.

The doors to the museum opened swiftly and she tore her face away from where she covered it in her hands to see a worried Minuteman come walking up to her, Codsworth and Dogmeat trailing close behind. “Lauren? Are you alright? I can’t believe you took that thing down!”

The man helped her up to her feet and gazed at her with wide eyes, beads of sweat glistening on his face as she wiped away her own. Her hand came away red, or…was already red or… _dammit_.

“What _was_ that?” she asked, her voice hoarse and her hand subconsciously reaching for the dog that sat by her side and was gazing up at her innocently. There was something about him that just seemed to calm her, perhaps it was the mere fact that he was a dog or maybe because he was the first creature that didn’t immediately try to kill her.

“They call those things Deathclaws. You probably already know why.” The group of people Preston had bunkered down in the museum then filed out cautiously from the wooden doors, eyes wide and faces pale when they finally spotted the hulking pile of Deathclaw that continued to bleed out on the street. One particular woman, an old woman, watched Lauren closely and seemed to see right through her. Supressing a shudder, Lauren returned her attention to Preston who was watching her curiously and finally registered his words. _They…is there more people out there? People who may have seen Shaun?_

“And who exactly are _they_?”

Preston gave her a brief smile, before handing her a bottle of purified water. “New to the Commonwealth huh? Folks at Diamond City and Bunker Hill coined the name. Mainly the latter because of the amount of traders and caravans that filter through who’ve been lucky enough to actually see one and live to tell the tale.”

“So Bunker Hill is a pretty major settlement then?”

Preston nodded and swiped the hat off his head briefly to brush away the dirt. “It’s large but Diamond City is easily double, maybe triple the size of Bunker Hill. They’ve stationed themselves in the stadium at the heart of the Commonwealth. Apparently it’s the safest settlement around.”

Lauren’s gaze flicked to Codsworth who was idly waiting behind her dog, his optical units flexing once she made eye contact with him. With her mind made up, she took a healthy swig of the water gifted to her and patted the power armour. “She’s all yours, Preston.”

“Where are you going?” He asked when she stepped around him with her dog and robot in tow. She looked over her shoulder with the best smile she could muster which, she assumed thanks to the blood that caked her face, probably looked hideous anyway.

“Diamond City.”


	3. Piper's Lead

The Commonwealth was a lonely, desolate place. A place where anything ranging from a raider to a damn Yao Guai could silently sneak up from behind and take your head off without you even knowing. Piper knew this for a fact. Hell, _everyone_ who has lasted all their years in such an unforgiving place like the Commonwealth knew this beyond a doubt. So it was for that very reason why the reporter for Publick Occurrences constantly checked over her shoulder every ten or so steps along the cracked and uneven ground.

Walking through central Boston on her own was risky and dangerous beyond reason, but with a monetary debt to the Mayor a mile long and an even bigger _moral_ debt to Diamond City’s population who deserves nothing but the truth, it was a necessary risk for Piper to be taking. She dug up a lead, one that was so scarce even _she_ couldn’t say for certain it was what she thought it was. If anything, she was making something out of nothing but never in her life had she turned down _any_ lead that had even the barest hints of truth hidden within them. So onwards she went. Plus that and she _did_ actually have somewhat of a plan to shove the fact that there _were_ super mutants and gunners lurking just outside Diamond City despite the Mayor denying wholeheartedly their existence.

This big lead or ball of nothing stemmed purely from the fact that there was a few hour’s gap in the Mayor’s schedule one day a week where he is nowhere to be found. At first, Piper thought it was him just trying to avoid her, knowing that almost every day after four o’clock – when Nat takes off for evening school – Piper will come snooping and shooting off her latest accusations. Geneva had even given up trying to stop Piper from seeing the Mayor, so she just waltz’s right on through. But every Thursday without a doubt, Geneva will insist that the Mayor is lying down, out in the market or doing _something_ other than twiddling his thumbs at his desk. Sure enough, Piper would not be able to find him anywhere – not in his office, his quarters, the markets or anywhere else she could think of. So with Piper being Piper, she decided to find out where _exactly_ he went off to.

Ever since Captain Mayburn and what he had done to her father, Piper had a very large distrust of any man in power, knowing that with power comes the great plague of greed, tyranny and selfishness where any regard for the common men and women flew completely out the window. That was why she already had a mistrust of McDonough and with this blank gap where he’s nowhere to be found, her suspicions were free to grow wildly. The last Thursday she had ordered Nat to keep an eye on the makeshift lift just in view from her sister’s podium in front of the Publick Occurrences, making sure the Mayor doesn’t come back down from there after his morning rounds in the market. Meanwhile Piper casually camped out in the lobby of Diamond City’s front gate where she knew the elevator – the only other _known_  exit for McDonough to take – would drop him off should he try to leave. But the doors never opened. After taking the elevator up, much to Danny’s annoyance, Piper found the familiar emptiness of McDonough’s office with Nat’s vehement statement that the other lift never moved once. Annoyed was not the word for how Piper felt after hours of waiting around.

So her mission out in Central Boston, where her feet scraped away at dusty and crumbling concrete where sprouts of already dried up and dying grassroots were breaking through, was to see if she can spot _anything_ that might indicate a secrete passage or a route of some sort that had Mayor Mc _Sneaky_ written all over it. She had lapped it twice and came up both empty and frustrated. Of course, one part of her was innately relieved to know there weren’t any holes in Diamond City’s perimeter, but the reporter in her knew she had been duped and that she was missing _something_.

She pulled the brim of her cap lower over her eyes against the bright glare of the sun, its rays heating up her shoulders as she decided to make one last lap around the city before retiring for the afternoon. She made it almost half way around again, her hand frustratedly tapping at her thigh as she walked and scanned _everything_ , when she spotted a giant hulking green form walking towards her from one of the off-streets. Quickly, she ducked low and quickly clamoured over to the nearest building with her gun drawn.

Its contents had been gutted, the floor above the lobby had crumbled inwards long ago and made each step of Piper’s reverberate through the relative silence of the street. With her back to a peeling wall, Piper listened for the lumbering steps of the super mutant and hoped to God that it wasn’t packing a load of mini nukes. Carefully, she turned her head when the steady thump thumping’s got nearer and watched through a broken window as the mutant passed her by, straight towards Diamond City’s rear wall. Before she could even contemplate getting one off to the back of its head, a blue laser struck through the air with a loud whir and blew apart the mutant’s face in one shot. The reporter stifled a gasp at the explosion of blood and turned her face away, the sight never _not_ making her want to puke. Yet despite that, it was the blue laser that got her attention.

The wares that Arturo and Myrna peddled were standard issue laser weapons at best, all of which emitted a _red_ laser. She didn’t even know that there were any other colours they ever _could_ come in. _Institute_. A voice in her head whispered. _The Institute, it’s got to be_. Going against every instinct in her body, Piper turned her head again and spotted a smaller figure clad in black leather and sunglasses step around the super mutant’s corpse through a crack in the wall. It was a dark man with extremely short black hair, his lips set in a grim line as he moved to the centre of the street and stopped, his gaze hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. Piper watched him for a few moments with bated breath, the side profile of the man was all she could make out with whatever he was staring at or watching blocked from view by one of the building’s remaining walls, even when she craned her head.

Her heart was hammering in her chest as she waited for him to do _something_. Did her hear her? Is he waiting for confirmation of her whereabouts? Is he from the Institute? He is scanning for her like the _other_ synths?

In Piper’s effort to see just a little bit more, her boot caught a loose piece of concrete and sent it crumbling down the pile of rubble that spilled out upon the street towards where the man stood. She jerked back out of view with a quiet gasp as she pressed herself tightly against the wall, eyes wide and shaking hands clutching her trusty pistol in front of her as she hoped to God that the mysterious man didn’t hear it. _If he is from the Institute, of course he would hear_ that _!_

She pressed herself back against the wall, fear trickling like cold water down her neck as she listened for the sound of any approaching footsteps. For all she knew, the damn thing could probably _fly_ or something, knowing the Institute. She glanced left and right after a few moments, seeing nothing out of the ordinary and so she peeked out just enough to see the man…but he was gone. In his place still lay the dead super mutant, but whoever or whatever had been standing there before had completely vanished. _Oh my god, oh my fucking God. Where did he go? Where is he?_

The reporter held her breath, straining to hear _anything_ that could indicate where the figure clad in black went but of course she heard nothing but the distant echoing of gunfire somewhere to the east, probably the Common. Piper wanted to run away as fast as she damn well could, but knew if that _thing_ were anywhere nearby, he’d kill her just as soon as look at her.

A crunch on the other side of the wall to her right had her head snap around with a barely contained gasp, her fingers clutching her gun impossibly tighter but that’s when she saw a shadow. _His_ shadow. She levelled her 10mm at roughly head height, finger already depressing the trigger almost to the point of firing and waited for him to step through the hole in the crumbled wall. Another crunch sounded, so clearly a footstep coming _closer_ to where she hid and had every muscle in her body tense almost painfully in anticipation of the upcoming fight.

“You are late.” Came a deep male’s voice, a voice so calm and so eloquent that it had Piper’s brow quirk purely because just how _foreign_ it was to ears that have merely heard the slurs of common wasteland folk. “I trust you weren’t followed.”

“Of course not.” Piper’s body involuntarily lurched at the sound of another man’s voice, a voice she could unfortunately pick out anywhere. _McDonough_. Her eyes found the shadow on the ground once more and watched as it turned and stepped thankfully away and back out into the street. “Although I cannot ensure the same for future meetings. There is one particular individual who seems suspicious of my standing as of late.”

“Piper Wright, yes we are well aware. Do not engage her in any way, not even to give false leads. Just carry on with your mission and ensure you use the utmost discretion during your activities.”

The woman in question willed her thumping heart to slow because it pounded so loudly in her ears that if she didn’t know any better, she could’ve sworn McDonough and whoever he was talking to could hear it too. Carefully, she peeked out from a crack in the wall, this time keeping her boots planted _firmly_ on the uneven pile of crumbled stone and plaster, to see that indeed it was Mayor McDonough who was still dressed in that dirty pantsuit of his that wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Inside this package is your current directives. Ensure that you permanently destroy them immediately after reading them. There will be no further communication for the foreseeable future.”

Piper’s eyes widened as the man clad in black leather erupted into a giant blue explosion that rattled the foundations of the already unstable building she was currently hiding in. A loud series of cracks and rumblings above her head told her to _get out_ immediately and as she scrambled for the already collapsed portion of the wall, a massive chunk of concrete crashed down right where she was standing mere moments before. Its ground shuddering collapse seemed to have a domino effect and had the reporter running for her life, barely managing to dodge the crumbling building around her while also somehow keeping her footing before leaping out of the first opening she came across. She landed on the ancient road with an _oompf_ before scrambling towards Diamond City’s big green wall as the rest of the building came crashing down within itself.

Her gloved hand steadied herself on the wall as she shakily returned her pistol to its holster, eyes already scanning the street for the men she heard conversing but only finding the one who was rapidly storming up to her. “You sly _devil_ of a woman! How dare you follow me out here!”

Piper’s eyes flicked from the pile of collapsed building to the man standing before her, his hands on his hips and a scowl plastered across his face as he glared at her. “I _knew_ it!” She yelled back, breathing hard as she straightened and squared up to the Mayor like she’d done many times before, despite the massive tremors wreaking havoc on her hands that then did half of the speaking for her. “You _are_ working for the Institute aren’t you, McDonough!”

The man scoffed and began walking away with a heavy shake of his head, offering nothing but grumbles and insults for the woman. “Yeah, you keep walking McDonough! Run away with your tail between your legs all you want, but there’ll be no hiding from the press in the long run! You’ll see!”

All she wanted to do right then was run after the man and tackle him to the ground, steal that damn folder and have a good looksee through all of it, but she knew better than to be that rash. Everyone in the Commonwealth had a gun and to be taken out by a man she _despised_? Piper Wright will not stand for that. So as she watched his retreating back, heart still hammering in her chest, she wondered just how the hell she can get the good folk of Diamond City on _her_ side for once, considering the option of spear tackling the Mayor seemed out of it once and for all now that she knew he also had a strong likelihood of actually _being_ a synth. For all she knew, she was lucky he hadn’t signalled for a bunch of them to pop out of nowhere and cart her off never to be seen again.

Despite that disturbing thought, an excited little giggle escaped her then because _finally_ she had something against him! Even if the people she was out there for didn’t believe her, _she_ knew and somehow, some when, she also knew that the people of Diamond City will know too. But first, as she turned around and whipped out her trusty notepad to write it all down, she needed to get some leverage on the Mayor first before anything else. It was then when that gunfire popping in the distance returned to the forefront of her mind and had her walking _towards_ the sound because if her plan worked out just right, that corrupt synth of a Mayor was in for a royal Diamond City uproar when she gets back home.


	4. Adapt, Survive, Repeat...

The sun was high and incessantly burning Lauren’s back as she trudged along the old, cracked and uneven road, her eyes tracking the faintly visible white lines in the centre as Dogmeat – or so the old woman had called him – happily bounded on up ahead. She left Codsworth back in Sanctuary Hills after begrudgingly leading Preston and his group of survivors back to where she used to live. It was a good move on her behalf, because she got a few more purified bottles of water out of it, some food and some peace and quiet that may or may not have been for the better.

Yes it was great to see her old Mr Handy again, but he was just so…chipper. So unnervingly unaffected by everything despite his mechanical voice suggesting at some kind of turmoil within himself. He only meant well, she knew, but still. Having him say how horrible it all had been for _him_ was like a slap in the face for the woman who had very recently watched her husband get shot in his head point blank and her son stolen without being able to do _anything_ about it. The same woman who had to murder a bunch of people before she herself was murdered or the helpless people trapped in that room were. She was _still_ the same woman who merely a few hours ago had her head in the jaws of what Preston called a _Deathclaw,_ believing she was undoubtedly about to kick the bucket in the most awful way.

_Codsworth_ was a robot, an unfeeling machine who is merely _programmed_ to behave in certain ways in certain situations. _Codsworth_ does not have the ache buried within his chest that seems to never leave, nor does he have cold sweats every few minutes or a suddenly rapid beating heart that feels like it was damn near about to burst through his ribcage. _Lauren_ was the one feeling the brunt of it all and was almost constantly wrestling with her emotions in an effort to not burst into tears. Yes he would have been helpful should she run into trouble, but at what cost to her already shaken mental state?

Her left hand unconsciously clutched at her chest as if to dull the ache while her right rested on the handle of her pistol at her hip, eyes that burned with many denied tears lifting to see the vast expanse of the wasteland she now found herself in. This was the same road she had taken to get to work every day, to her left was the drive-in theatre where Nate and her went on their first date together and these burnt out and rundown trucks that her and her canine companion were then passing were the exact kind of trucks she’d pass every day without batting an eye. She wondered idly if the skeletons that still sat perched in the driver’s seat was a reflection of what the rest of the Commonwealth looked like – ancient people incinerated by the bomb she watched fall from the sky and forevermore left in the exact position of which they had perished in. Suppressing a shudder at the thought, Lauren’s gaze returned to the asphalt as she tried not to think of everyone else she knew and loved who probably never made it to a vault in time. Which of course she drastically failed at because her mind couldn’t focus on anything _but_ all the people who perished in that single fateful moment.

The buildings visible over the train tracks were what remained of Cambridge, a lovely city that used to thrive with people busying themselves with work or their pursuit of a happy future in the industry of their dreams, whether it was science at the Polymer Labs or mechanics at Corvega’s production factory or – like her – the legal campus where she got her degrees. There was an aged care facility on the outskirts of the city, most likely where her grandparent’s still rested and Lauren hoped with all her heart that they didn’t know what happened and were simply napping together when the searing wave of heat and devastation swept over everything. That would have been better than watching it within the confines of a wheelchair.

Lauren didn’t realise until he licked her hand, but Dogmeat had stopped and cocked his head, those little brown eyes looking up at her innocently as tears she only just realised had escaped travelled down her cheeks. She stopped walking and let herself drop to ground, her hands covering her face as she wept. Surely this isn’t real. Surely this is just some kind of nightmare that her screwed up mind had conjured in her sleep that she’ll wake up from sooner or later, when everything will simply go back to the way it was and Nate will be there with his arm around her middle. But no. No matter how many times she pinched herself and pleaded inwardly to just go back, to just _not_ be _there_ anymore, the bitter smell of death and destruction never went away. The dead and broken trees never flourished into the rich green canopies of springtime’s beauty, nor did the dirt and ash where grass used to grow and the purple lavender used to thrive in beautiful abundance.

The dog at her side sat and whined a little, nuzzling gently against her shoulder as Lauren sobbed, proving yet again the reality of what she found herself in. Her world was gone. It was now two hundred years in the future and everyone she knew and loved besides that _damn_ robot is dead and gone.

Except for Shaun.

Shaun is out there somewhere and Lauren will be damned if she just gave up. So, with a shuddering breath and quick, grateful hug to her pup, Lauren pushed herself back onto her feet and began walking once more to the looming shadows of Boston’s broken city.

 

***********

 

It had taken her almost two hours to get to the Charles River, having gone west to avoid the looming ruins of Cambridge and the gunfire that sounded oddly like lightning that was most _certainly_ not something Lauren wanted to become even more familiar with than she already was. From her vantage point under a ruined overpass, she could see that the main bridge connecting Cambridge to Boston’s inner most city was raised almost to its peak and so she decided that she dare not waste anymore daylight in trying to cross it should it turn out to be too far of a gap. It was coming into late afternoon and besides, it looked dangerous enough with a haphazardly floating ship trapped beneath it.

Dogmeat woofed once, startling the woman as she gazed out over the river. “What is it buddy?” The dog tilted his head and gave her a look, his tail straight up in the humid, heavy air. “What’s wrong?” He barked twice more and began sniffing the air, ears twitching either side of his head as Lauren scanned their surroundings. Nothing could be seen, nothing could be heard, but the dog noticed _something_ and that was good enough for her to take seriously. She dropped into a crouch and continued swivelling her head, heart beginning to pound steadily in her chest as her hand withdrew the pistol at her side.

The hair on Dogmeat’s neck stood up and he turned towards the river growling, stalking forward slowly as his eyes trained on something in the distance. But that’s when Lauren heard it. _Clicking_. Lots of clicking, like someone snapping their forefinger and thumb together but at an _inhuman_ pace. She crept towards the embankment, to her right a red bridge harbouring a railroad track that stretched across the river, and looked down towards the water with bated breath. That’s when her stomach dropped.

Huge, angry _things_ were clicking around at the water’s edge, large shells on their backs while they walked on innumerable legs that could only _barely_ resemble those of pre-war crabs. One of the three let off a noise that sounded much like a high-pitched squeal while the others seemed to hiss and click like it was some kind of code or debate. Lauren placed her hand on Dogmeat because it appeared as though he wanted to charge them, but some long lost and buried instinct in the woman told her that this was a fight she’d rather avoid. Her path across the river – thanks to the train track’s bridge – was not obstructed by anything dangerous that she could see, so to engage in a fight with these monstrous _things_ would be much more reckless than clever.

Just as she turned around a large explosion sounded and Lauren dropped to the ground on her hands and knees with a sharp gasp, terrified to see that from the muddy ground exploded up yet _another_ one of those _things_ …but something seemed different about this one. The others appeared to be dark blues and browns, whereas this new one, this new _thing_ that almost seemed to roar out a sharp, grating snarl was glowing a bright green colour. Its pincers that were held up in the air were ginormous as its legs clicked rapidly towards the other three monsters, its face – if one could call it that – was tucked securely underneath the brim of its shell as it charged forward almost like it was angry. One of the others, the darker brown one who squealed seconds before, curled in on itself and started clicking like crazy as the glowing one approached, its pincers reaching for the other’s and to Lauren’s amazement, snipped the smaller one’s pincer right off. A cacophony of hissing, clicking and high pitched screeching followed thereafter, making Lauren grate her teeth as she half dragged Dogmeat with her towards the railroad tracks. With one last glance over her shoulder, she saw the remaining monsters follow in the glowing one’s heed and began to pinch and snip at the obviously vulnerable undersides of the smaller one who barely could defend itself with merely a single pincer. A second later, Lauren turned back around and tried not to think too much about what she just saw.

 

************

 

There was something odd about this new world, the destruction done by the atomic bombs notwithstanding. It almost seemed like some kind of abstract reality one would see in a dream or horror film, with barely any colour and a deafening silence that seemed to stretch on for miles on end. Empty. Barren. A land without a master, untamed by humankind whose leash was severed with the searing heat that wiped away _everything_ the old world struggled to build.

Looking out over the expanses, Lauren could see nothing but the triviality of it all. The world before was so greedy, so selfish, so _reckless_. Hell, even the _birds_ suffered who now looked nothing more than glorified rats with wings. How anyone could survive out there in the heat, on land covered in soot and ash and remains of a once prosperous world, was a wonder to the woman who jumped at every shadow around her. Her eyes kept darting down to her pup who plodded merrily along beside her with his nose down, almost touching the endless rail of the train track. She wondered how it was that he survived on his own, merely relying on the intellect of an animal driven by his baser desires to get through each day. Perhaps that was the key to surviving in this world now, perhaps it was what the civilisation before needed from the beginning. Getting caught up in politics and legalities and _ownership_ most importantly, were all things that steadily pushed them to edge of the cliff, the final shove being that of greed – the mindset that if I can’t have it, no one will – which took form in the press of that one little red button that ended it all.

A scream from somewhere up ahead jolted Lauren from her reverie and as she instinctively stepped forward, her mind made her freeze on the spot. A large black cloud of smoke billowed up from somewhere not too far ahead, the cries and echoing gunfire sent a shiver of fear running down her spine as the cloud reached higher and higher in the dreary blue sky above. Dogmeat bounded forward, his strong bark leading Lauren onwards despite the knowledge that this _definitely_ is _not_ a good idea. As she ran after her dog up the slight incline along the train tracks, a white two story tower came into view behind the stiff and broken figures of long dead trees, its roof ablaze with a roaring fire that crackled and hissed like a monster all on its own. She rounded the base of the tower, gun drawn with her dog by her side and gasped at the scene laid bare before her.

The corpse of a man lay sprawled on his back merely a metre away from Lauren’s boots, his face so obviously caved in by something hard and unforgiving, his fingers twitching as though _something_ of him still remained within…but that type of injury Lauren knew was something no one could come back from. A few more metres away and to her right lay a woman gasping for breath, bloodied hands pressing into her own stomach where a bullet wound or several continued to bleed out on the muddy ground next to a long extinguished campfire. It took merely a second for Lauren take it all in; the screams of a child as he fled a group of men dressed crudely in green army overalls, so obviously _not_ the soldiers Lauren knew because they were grabbing and forcing themselves upon the weeping womenfolk of what appeared to be a small farming establishment.

Anger welled in her chest and within a second Lauren found herself storming forward, gun raised and firing at the five men laughing who still had yet to notice her. The first bullet punched into one man’s shoulder, the second grazed the neck of another and the third punched cleanly through the eye of the man who shoved away the screaming woman and who was about to reach for his own gun. Dogmeat bounded forward with frantic barks, his teeth finding the calf of the fourth guy with a baseball bat who came rushing towards Lauren as she continued to fire. The next bullet hit the dirt in the distance, the fifth finished off the man already shot in the shoulder with a clear puncture into the base of his throat and the sixth bullet fired wasn’t even her own. It ricocheted behind her off the white tower, making her duck and scramble for cover behind a red workbench.

The yells of the man still battling with Dogmeat made Lauren poke her head back up and fire off three more shots that finished off the man who kicked out and raised his bat to her dog. No sooner had he dropped to the ground, Dogmeat had charged forward to the remaining two and barrelled into the one with the gun, knocking him down onto the ground and proceeding to tear his throat out with furious growls. Lauren stalked forward with her gun up, eyes pinned on the remaining man who clutched at his bleeding neck. No, upon closer inspection he wasn’t a man, merely a _kid_. “Drop the gun, kick it over.” Lauren demanded, her voice rough and harsh and so unlike what she was expecting that it nearly took her by surprise. As the kid dropped the crudely made pistol and carefully swept it along the dirt it towards her with his boot, Dogmeat stepped off his freshly made kill and glared at the young man who eyes darted fearfully from the dog to its mistress with his hands held up either side of his head. “Why are you doing this to these people? Who are you?” She demanded, only allowing a second to glance over to where two women knelt and were trying to help the woman who was shot in the stomach.

“P-please don’t! Don’t kill me! Please! I-I didn’t mean to hurt nobody, I swear! I-”

“Get out of here.” She growled. “ _Never_ come back here and _never_ do that _anyone_ ever again!” Without hesitating, the kid started sprinting away and into the dead embrace of the rotting black trees, his frantic footfalls faded into silence just as Lauren crouched down next to the wounded woman who still lay gasping for air. “Here, use this on her.” She said softly, handing over a stimpak Preston had given her to one of the women who gratefully took it.

“ _You_ ,” The other woman growled from where she cradled the still bleeding youth. “You’ve done enough already. Leave us be!”

Lauren was momentarily shocked by the woman’s outburst, the look of hatred and pain in her eyes drilling deep into Lauren’s soul and left her reeling. “O-okay I’ll go. I just wanted to help.”

“Help?” The woman laugh humourlessly, a sickened glint in her eyes as she spared a glance down to the wounded woman in her arms before looking back up. “You should’ve just killed that bastard when you had the chance!” She spat, blue eyes rimmed with red as she watched Lauren’s brow knit together in confusion. “Now he’s going to bring more of _them_ back here to finish us off!”

“But he was just a child,” Lauren breathed, shaking her head incredulously but not once breaking eye contact. “I couldn’t dare do such a thing.”

Both women in front of her paused and looked to the other, an identical grim tug of their lips marring each face as the wounded woman groaned softly between them. A moment of silence passed as the stimpak was injected, the sound of Dogmeat panting at Lauren’s flank that only thing to break the monotony. Finally, the rather hostile woman looked back up to Lauren once more. “Did your mother drop you on your head? With that kind of mentality it’s a wonder you lived to your ripe age, stupid woman.” Lauren quirked a brow, the words falling off her like water off a duck’s back, but the one thing that really bothered her was that she was being chastised by a stranger for _not_ killing a boy begging for his life to be spared.

_The world is different now,_ she told herself as she stood up with a heavy sigh. _People are different. Everything is different. Adapt, survive, repeat._ As she leaned down and brushed her hand along Dogmeat’s bloody fur, offering him her thanks and telling him he’s a good boy for protecting her, she tried not looking down at the four dead bodies of the men she had a hand in killing as she walked towards the train tracks once more.

_Adapt._

She tried not focusing in on the metallic smell of blood hanging thick in the air, a cloud of flying insects buzzing around the freshly spilt lifeblood.

_Survive_.

She closed her eyes at the weight of the pistol in her hands, reliving the recoil of the bullets that tore through the flesh of living, breathing men mere moments before.

_Repeat._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fret not! Lauren will be meeting Diamond City's intrepid reporter VERY soon...but it's not gonna be canon ;)


	5. Partners in Crime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and Blue finally meet, but the circumstances leave much to be desired

Two bullets. Two bullets was all Lauren had left as she scurried on her hands and knees under the wreckage of an overturned truck, the incessant beeping of a mini nuke in the hands of some overgrown green giant following her and yelling in a voice that made shivers run up and down her spine. _It_ can’t _be human, surely it can’t possibly have a conscience._ As soon as she was clear, she tore off sprinting after Dogmeat, ducking and weaving as the sound of gunfire erupted from behind her as more of the monsters awoke to the action. Puffs of their impacts blew out from the ground and the surrounding buildings, the smell of rot and blood from the innumerable bags of human remains hanging precariously around her lingered bitterly and repugnantly, almost like she could _taste_ it on her tongue with every breath of the dusty air she took.

Dogmeat bounded on up ahead of her, ears up and panting as he lead the way through the maze of crumbled buildings and burnt out cars, trollies full of more abominable displays of cruelty and masochism as Lauren tried to just _keep moving_. Dogmeat turned left and Lauren followed, trusting his instincts more than her panicked and disoriented mind which soon settled upon a large green wall that stretched up in front of them. _Fenway Park Stadium, thank fuck!_

“Hey, you! What are you doing?” A gruff male voice sliced through the air with barely contained hostility somewhere from Lauren’s left. Dogmeat growled as his mistress ducked back into the rows of storefronts, breathing hard and clutching her gun even harder as she looked for cover. An old bakery’s storefront was caved in just enough to grant her entry and so she slunk inside, mutt following close behind her as she took shelter behind the counter. With any luck, whatever the hell kind of monster was chasing her would see whoever the hell _else_ yelled out to her and attack _them_ instead. But Lauren could only wish she was that lucky.

Soon enough the gaping hole she climbed through gave way to a hulking green form, its sledgehammer caked in crusty red blood and splinters from past impacts as bloodshot and _angry_ eyes searched for her. It sniffed the air, like it could taste her traitorous scent on the clouds of dust and ash that swelled and swirled in the air around her and Dogmeat who stood ramrod straight and ready to pounce at her side. Suddenly the beast growled and reared back with its sledgehammer before bringing it down upon the debris that littered the entrance with an almighty crash, the rubble bringing down with it a part of the already haphazardly caved in ceiling. The thing pushed through, yelling for her blood and grunting in its struggle and just as she wound up the last fusion cell in the laser musket along with whatever bravery remained in her, a series of shots rang out whose impacts were accentuated by the thump of bullets striking flesh. It screamed out in agony, another series of shot cracking through the air that had Lauren ducking for cover and pulling Dogmeat back from rounding the counter. Then there was silence and the almost too loud thumping of her heartbeat, breath stuck in her lungs and her limbs tensed beyond belief. She risked a peek over the counter only to see the thing dead and a man dressed in baseball attire standing in its wake, his helmeted head peeking into the shop with a raised gun in front. “Lady, you in here?” He called out, voice rough and sharp with adrenaline. Lauren ducked down again, unsure or whether popping up and shooting him would only end up getting herself killed.

“Go away! I don’t want to hurt you, just _leave_!” She yelled, almost panting now because her body was twitching with inaction. But there was nowhere to go. She was stuck in this corner with Dogmeat, beasts lurking outside and a strange man in some weird attire with a _gun_ hunting her down in a dishevelled shop and holy _fuck_ was it a bad idea to yell out because _now he knows where she is_.

His footsteps came closer, making Dogmeat’s hackles rise. Saliva dripped from his mouth as each crunch from the man’s boots made his ear twitch. “ _Go away!_ ”

“Listen lady, I don’t wanna hurt you. It’s dangerous to be out here all alone, so just come with me and I’ll keep you safe.”

_Yeah right, how many times have I heard_ that one _in court from the witness stand._ “I’m not going to warn you again. Leave!” _Fake it till you make it. There’s only one of him, I’ve got Dogmeat. There’s no way he’ll mess with a dog_.

But he stepped closer and it was clear then that he wasn’t going to leave. So Lauren only did what she could. In a second she lifted from her crouch, bringing the musket up and over the counter and fired. But the shot went wide and struck the other wall, the man ducking behind a display case and coming back up when he heard the resounding click of an empty musket. She swore, throwing the damn thing away and retrieving her knife as Dogmeat leapt up and over a pile of debris only to get kicked aside with an armoured boot before his teeth could meet flesh. She barely had time to do _anything_ before the barrel of a crudely made pipegun levelled with her head.

“Call off your mutt and I won’t pull the trigger. Do it lady!”

“Dogmeat,” she called softly, her voice breaking because _fuck_. “Dogmeat come here, boy.” She hoped to God he listened because it was all she could do but to stare at that little black circle which at any moment could spit forth a ball of lead that would in an instant render her son an orphan and her entire life a waste.

“I don’t know what the hell you tried to pull there lady, but if you do it again I’m sure as shit _not_ gonna give you another chance. You’re coming with me and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.” He grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her out from behind the counter despite Dogmeat’s growls. “I’ll let the boys back in Diamond City deal with you.”

Lauren’s ears pricked at that, her eyes widening slightly as Dogmeat limped to nuzzle her leg. She kept her hands raised either side of her head but remained rooted to the spot even though the barrel of his gun pressed against her shoulder blade. “Diamond City? You’re form Diamond City?”

The man grunted in the affirmative before shoving her forward towards the shop’s exit. “Don’t play dumb with me. You knew full well what you were trying to do and let me tell ya, the town don’t play nice with people trying to murder their security. Even if you’re a ‘harmless vaultie’, but you’ll see that soon enough.”

“No, _no_ you must understand! I’m not from here! I didn’t know-” She was slapped up the side of the head when she stopped again to protest, feeling another shove pitch her forward and onto the road. She scrambled to her feet, frustrated now and about to give him a piece of her mind but was met with a steely glare from behind the plexiglass of the helmet’s goggles.

“Get. Moving.”

Lauren turned, eyes finding the giant green wall again but this time, instead of hope, her heart was filled with dread. Her sanctuary, her one and only shot at finding her baby boy now could mean the very end of her life because if there was one thing she’d learnt in her short time in this new, fucked up world, it’s that any mistake made is punishable by death and no one, not a single soul, will be there to say otherwise.

 

***************

 

_What the fuck am I doing?_ _This could_ never _work Piper!_ In front of the reporter stood the large skeletal remains of one of the many looming towers in the heart of Boston, its many levels sheltering a hive of super mutants and their mutant mutts alike. Fires burned somewhere within despite the late afternoon sun illuminating more than enough for visibility, which Piper could’ve done without considering the mutants’ choice of decoration. Like all hives, hanging bags of blood and meat and whatever else the big green guys could get their hands on swayed from their chains on the side of the building, long smears of blood trickling down and adding to the already ghastly image.

As unsettled as she already was, Piper’s nerves took another blow when a scream erupted from somewhere within, a moment later it sounded again before being abruptly cut off. From what she could only guess, but desperately didn’t want to. If the situation were different she would’ve tried to help, but the muties easily outnumbered her ten times over and she really didn’t think she could make much of a difference to that poor soul anyway. Super mutants never played with their food long enough for a successful rescue.

With a shuddering sigh, the reporter rested her forehead against the side of the burnt out car she was hiding behind, her eyes closed and her heart hammering in her chest as she contemplated what she was about to do. This tower was merely a few blocks away from Diamond City and literally a living testament to the fact that the Mayor was lying through his teeth once more. Piper herself didn’t need convincing, it was the rest of the Diamond City who needed to be _shown_ the undeniable truth and what better way to do that than show up with the very thing McDonough said never existed. The people all believed in the safety of the Wall, in the safety of having armed guards constantly on patrol and also in the words of the Mayor that stated there were no super mutants anywhere near them. But Piper was merely five minutes away from the gate and staring down an entire _hive_ of the damn things. If the people didn’t know, if the people grew accustomed to the false belief that they were completely safe from the monsters of the Commonwealth then they would grow complacent, weak and easy prey when the time finally came that whatever was out there finally attacked. It was already happening, what with the ‘upper stands’ folk looking down on the ‘lowers’ with prejudicial glares as if surviving the wasteland were a _taboo_ if it were done in tattered rags and without barely a cap to one’s name.

No. They _needed_ to know and if their benevolent Mayor wouldn’t man up and tell the truth, then it was up to Piper and the Publick Occurrences to help the people protect themselves.

With another deep breath, the reporter withdrew her pistol and peeked over the car again, fuelled by memories of her father and what he’d do in a situation like this. In front and at the base of the tower stood three super mutants feasting on something Piper dared not look at. Instead, she scanned the area around them for more of the big ugly bastards before lifting her gun and settling one of the mutant’s squarely in her sights. _Here goes nothing._

Her finger flexed and the crack of her pistol shot through the air as the bullet made impact with the mutant’s skull, splaying blood and bone across his comrade’s faces. With guttural roars their heads snapped around to where Piper was hiding, their dead friend crumpling to the ground as Piper doubled back and shot again. She wasn’t aiming for their heads this time. No, instead she was aiming for their torso because she knew from unfortunate experiences that a single shot to their chest don’t do shit when it comes to putting one of them down for good.

Heavy footsteps followed her further into the street as the hive in the tower came alive with activity. It had been her hope that they _all_ wouldn’t have heard that single shot, but now caution was thrown to the wind and it was all she could do but hope that one of them didn’t get in a lucky shot. She fired again at the big guy wielding a large wooden board with nails poking out of it, his buddy flanking him with a pipe rifle that barely looked operational. If there was one good thing about super mutants, it was that they weren’t bright enough nor delicate enough to properly service their weapons.

Each long stride Piper took while ducking into cover and popping back up to make a run for it was punctuated with a thudding heart and ragged breaths, her mind focused on leading _just these two_ away from their brethren and towards the Great Green Jewel of the Commonwealth.

Two lousy super mutants she knew the city guards would be able to handle in their sleep, especially since only one of them was armed and that her own shots struck them hard in the chest, weakening them substantially. If she could just get them near the gate, not actually _inside_ Diamond City but near enough so that people can _hear_ the gunshots, then her work would be done. There would be no denying it then that _something_ lurked outside those walls and considering every guard that walked these streets had friends and family within those walls, word of super mutants actually existing out there would quickly spread by wild fire. Not to mention that Piper herself would print the very truth so that _everyone_ would know.

It was probably reckless and stupid beyond measure, but it _had to work_.

Piper swore when a bullet whizzed by closer than she liked and she risked a glance over her shoulder to see the one with the board gaining on her quickly. _Fuck shooting them, just run_. She leapt over a pile of debris, sprinting down the road and panting loudly until the giant green gates of the city came into view. With a sigh of relief she barrelled into the terminal, leaping over a barricade and reloading her pistol. “Piper? What the hell are doing?”

“Not now Danny!”

He and the rest of his guards barely had enough time to scramble for cover themselves when the pair of hulking green giants came into view, the one with the gun aiming for Sullivan’s bright red head before Piper shot him in the shoulder. With a roar of rage it turned its gun on the reporter as the other mutant stormed forward towards the guards, throwing the board around wildly until it connected with an armoured shoulder. With three guards on one mutant, it was put out of its misery before it could even lift the board another time while the one with the gun dropped to the ground after a clean headshot from Piper’s 10mm. Hearing nothing but silence, the reporter straightened and breathed a heavy sigh. Her hands shook, her face felt numb and for some reason it was hard to stay balanced, but with a glance over to Diamond City Security who thankfully survived the ordeal, she couldn’t help but grin.

“That enough excitement for you boys?” She called mischievously, striding confidently towards the stairs. Danny glared, helping his injured comrade off the ground. It looked like he was about to say something more when a bloodcurdling roar sounded from just outside the gates making Piper spin around, her stomach sinking. “Oh _fuck_!”

Five more of the brutes stormed towards them, two of their mutts lunging over the barricades and coming straight for them. “Get down!” Danny yelled, firing off a series of shot as Piper did the same.

_Stupid. Fucking stupid idea, Piper. Jesus._ She took up a post at the entrance to the stairwell even though there was no cover to speak of. Her sister was right beyond that gate and she’ll be dammed if she lets little Natalie get hurt because of her own stupid, _stupid_ actions.

A bullet struck the wall right next to Piper’s shoulder but the reporter didn’t have time to count her lucky stars before a hound full of muscle leapt up at her with a mouth full of sharp yellowed teeth. She sidestepped it, managing _that_ feat purely out of dumb luck and kicked the damn thing as hard as she could before unloading her clip into its thick skull. As she reloaded, making sure with another none too gentle nudge of her foot that it was well and truly dead, she glanced up to see that the guards had managed put down the other mutt and one of its masters that now lay in a pool of blood. The other four were already weakened by the red holes that punched into their chests and between her and the guards, it took hardly a few more bullets to finish the job.

“I don’t know what the hell that was, Piper,” Danny almost growled, breathing hard as he stepped over a green and red corpse, eyes scanning the streets out front of the gate. “But you better have a good reason for leading them back here.”

“I do, Danny. You’ll see.” Piper said sharper than she intended before turning around and climbing the stairs, her mind conjuring up the courage for what she was about to do.

Like always, numerous Diamond City residents gathered at the foot of the stairs with worried eyes and shaking hands clenched around crudely made weapons. McDonough – as always – trying no doubt to play down the sound of gunfire at the gates to their city and when the reporter herself emerged at the top of the stairs, gun still in hand, every pair of eyes that stood there turned to her. Including little Nat who stood stunned on her wooden podium.

“People of Diamond City!” Piper called out loudly, her voice wavering only slightly from the exhaustion she was then feeling. “Outside those gates lie the bodies of several super mutants! If it wasn’t for Diamond City Security, they would’ve been in _here_ , coming after you and your loved ones! This man,” She pointed her free hand to McDonough accusingly, taking a moment to draw in some much needed air before speaking again. “Has been lying to you. _Again_! What was it he said last week at the fortnightly gathering? That there were _no_ super mutants around Diamond City?” She looked around at the people watching her, scared eyes trained on her while accusing ones flicked to the Mayor. “Well take a look out there folks because they certainly weren’t friendly traders!”

“Piper-”

“No McDonough. Tell them the truth! Admit that you were lying to them, to _everyone_ about how safe we truly are!”

A hand grabbed her from behind but she twisted and broke away from the man’s grip, eyes shooting daggers at the culprit Danny before returning to pin McDonough to the spot. “ _And_ ,” she began, snarling the word like it would burn her next words into the man’s very forehead. “I finally have proof that the Mayor is a synth!”

A series of murmurs erupted through the crowd then, making the man in question shift uncomfortably while fixing her with a scowl. “Danny, take her to the Piper suite. Now.” As a pair of hands tried to capture her again, Piper shoved back roughly, unprepared for another guard to attack from behind.

“No! Get off me! I’m the good guy here, _he’s_ the one you should be locking up!” Piper struggled with the large guard;s grip on, trying to twist out of his grip but only ended up writhing in place as Danny immobilised her arms, snatching away the gun and leading her and the guard through the still muttering crowd. She barely caught a glimpse of Nat through the throng of people, but when she did, she noticed an odd look on the little girl’s face. Not quite disappointment, but not quite pride either. Piper couldn’t pinpoint what _exactly_ it was, because her attention was caught by the attempt of McDonough who shouted calming words over the rising voices of people now behind them.

“Now don’t listen to that rabble rousing slanderer folks! You heard for yourself that she’s gone mad with conspiracy about synths and the Institute. I assure you _all_ that the Great Wall _is_ and _will_ protect us long into the future!”

With a growl that burned from her hated filled gut for the Mayor, Piper allowed herself to be led away with the belief that she should bide her time and wait for the right moment, the right circumstances to _finally_ shut that lying synth up for good. If only she could catch a damn break.

 

**************

 

 Lauren – who sat in the corner of Diamond City’s jail cell – played with a shoelace that somehow survived the past two hundred and ten years. She liked to think she was in better condition than the brown, shrivelled and split bit of fabric, but currently she wondered if the lace was more structurally sound than her mental health. Apparently, bugs are now bigger than dogs and crabs double that again who also explode upwards from the ground and will no doubt try to eat you as soon as they look at you.

Supressing a shiver, Lauren glanced up when a ruckus sounded from down the hall in front of her and from between the rusted brown bars she could see two guards escorting a struggling figure clad in red towards the cell.

“Stop! You can’t do this to me _again_! Don’t you care if the Mayor of Diamond City is a synth?! An Institute _spy_? It’s the only explanation as to why he’s constantly _lying!_ ” The woman yelled, clearly displeased with how she was being treated. The guards, covered from head to toe in metal and leather baseball attire which apparently is _not_ the attire of bad guys out for blood, remained quiet as they opened the cell door and none too gently shoved the woman inside and closed the door behind her. The sound of the lock echoed throughout the room and they turned and left the way they came, leaving the woman staring after them with an annoyed huff.

Lauren returned her attention to the lace she threaded between her fingers and wondered just what the woman was talking about. _Something about synths? Great. They locked me in here with a nutbag. Or…wait a minute. Am_ I _the nutbag here?_

Her head snapped up in sudden realisation that she could very well be hallucinating _everything_ and that she may have been right about it being all a dream. A very _real_ feeling dream that just never seemed to end and might, _might_ just be the result of one too many knocks to the head. The woman locked in there with her caught Lauren’s attention then. She was feeling around her coat for something but obviously either couldn’t find it or wasn’t aware that the guards probably searched her as they escorted her in like they did to Lauren. With a sigh, the dark haired woman turned and slumped down against the wall, two feet from Lauren’s left shoulder.

“What are you in for?” she asked quietly, looking over to the woman clad in blue.

Lauren glanced over, repeatedly tying the lace together and undoing it again. “I attacked Diamond City Security.” She murmured quietly with a shrug. “Didn’t know he was friendly.” The woman’s eyebrow quirked but nevertheless she remained silent. Lauren waited a few beats, quietly assessing the stranger. “And you?”

The woman sighed and turned to face Lauren, her shoulder against the wall. “I called a certain someone out on one big ol’ lie in front of quite a few important people...”

Lauren smirked, reflecting on what she could remember the woman yelling out a few moments prior. But for the sake of being polite, Lauren decided to humour the woman next to her. “I guess whoever it was didn’t particularly appreciate it, huh?”

The woman smiled brightly and gave a light chuckle. “No he did not.” She looked up to Lauren and offered her gloved, dusty hand. “I’m Piper Wright, reporter for Publick Occurrences.”

Lauren took the offered hand and gave a polite smile. “I’m Lauren, attempted murderer of a city guard.”

Piper looked her over, scrutinizing what felt like to Lauren her entire being. “And how did _that_ happen exactly?”

Lauren gave a slight shrug and returned her attention to the shoelace once again. “I didn’t know there _were_ friendly guys toting guns out there. I tried to get him before he got me, but lucky for him I’m a shitty shot. Totally killed a wall though.”

Piper gave a light laugh, brushing her hat off her head and plopping it in her lap. “We all make mistakes, huh? Hopefully they’ll just keep you in here for a few hours and let you walk free. _Me_ on the other hand, I’m in here for a good long while probably.”

“Oh yeah?” Lauren murmured, turning fully to face the woman, mirroring her pose as she asked the question she already knew the answer to. “Just who’s ass did you oust in front of important people?”

Piper grinned. “The Mayor of Diamond City. He’s a liar, I _know_ he is. He says he’s not a synth, that he’s not working for the Institute but there is so much going on that’s pointing _directly_ to him. For starters, people are disappearing from around here without a trace. I’ve tried to confront him about it, but he just shrugs it off as if it’s normal. I know I probably sound real crazy right now, but trust me, the Institute is out there and people are just _letting_ them claw their way all through the Commonwealth. And to top it off, I spotted him meeting up with a very suspicious courier which – and again I _swear_ I’m not crazy – vanished in a ball of light. I confronted him about it and got nothing but denial and insults, suggesting to me that I was right all along. He’s with the Institute.”

Lauren thought for a moment, taking her turn to study the reporter intently while her mind went blank with confused intrigue. Emerald eyes clear as day, strong and unwavering as they held her gaze. It was a look that contradicted those she was used to seeing in clients while she was working as a defence attorney. Normally they’d avoid her eyes, they’d fiddle, they’d trip up and stutter, but this woman was anything but. She also had a face like a goddess framed by black shoulder length hair that looked soft to the touch and a small determined smirk that made it all the more impossible to resist her strange charm.

“And…what is this Institute?” Lauren asked, quirking her brow. Piper was just about to reply when a guard ran a metal pipe along the bars, startling them both.

“Enough about the Institute, Piper!” He growled through clenched teeth.

“I’m just saying that with all these disappearances happening, any _good_ and _honourable_ Mayor would _at least_ assign a few guys to–”

“ _Enough_!”

Piper started grumbling under her breath, securing her cap back onto her head with a scowl. Lauren watched the guard give Piper a burning glare before he stalked back to his chair in the corner. “So, did you come from a vault or something?”

Lauren looked back to Piper questioningly. “And just how did you know I came from a vault?”

Piper’s brow furrowed slightly as another smirk shaped her lips again, looking much better upon her features than that scowl she dropped moments before. “Uh, the vault suit and that gizmo on your wrist, Blue. Kinda hard to miss.”

“Oh,” Lauren murmured, a blush creeping along her cheeks. “Yeah. Vault one eleven.”

Piper scooted closer, her curiosity suddenly bubbling up inside her. “So why did you leave?” The reporter watched as a shadow passed along the brunette’s features before the woman herself replied in a guarded tone.

“It’s a graveyard now.”

_OhmyGod,_ Piper thought to herself excitedly, trying to grapple with herself to keep her cool. _Okay, Piper, don’t push too hard…_ “How come?” It was all she could do but to hope the vault dweller didn’t notice the sudden tremble of excitement in her voice at finding a _very_ promising lead to a good story.

Lauren was about to reply when the guard suddenly stood up and followed another to the cage door. The first guard entered and glared coldly at Lauren. “You, stand up.” Lauren frowned but nevertheless did as she was told. No sooner had she done so, one of the guards fixed a pair of rusty hand cuffs to her wrists and restrained them behind her back. “You’re going to the mile.”

“What’s that?” Lauren asked as she was roughly shoved forward and out of the cage. “How long will I be there for? I have to find my son, he’s only a baby.” The guards remained silent as they patted Lauren down for any hidden weapons. Piper meanwhile had leapt to her feet in a hurry.

“Hey you can’t send her there! What the hell is going on?!” Piper exclaimed loudly as the door banged closed. “You can’t do that!”

“Shut up.” The guard who was then dragging Lauren growled and proceeded to lead her down the darkened corridor. Fear crept up in Lauren’s chest at Piper’s reaction. Whatever ‘the mile’ was, certainly was _not_ something that was met with happy smiles and open arms. And Lauren was apparently heading right to it. Piper’s yells and cusses could be heard all the way up to the metal door that Lauren was shoved through, the slam of its lock effectively silencing the yells of the reporter as sunlight blinded Lauren. She could see that she was actually _inside_ Diamond City, a safe haven she had heard about and longed to enjoy, but she just had to fucking go and _shoot_ at one of their damn guards didn’t she?

The guards and their prisoner clad in blue turned a sharp left and parted through the crowds of people, their eyes watching Lauren wearily as she was led to what felt like her imminent demise. They shoved her to the right down an alleyway and remained silent.

“What is the mile?” she asked over her shoulder and was met with more silence. “Excuse me?”

“Shut up.”

Lauren was shoved forward once more and nearly stumbled into a man. Looking up to meet bright and glowing eyes gazing at her from under a weathered fedora, she froze, taking in the fake skin and bits of metal in the man’s neck that made up his mechanical skull. “S-sorry, sir.” She said quickly, surprised to see the man’s lips quirk into a slight smirk as he nodded once. Lauren was shoved forward again and managed to keep her feet under her, feeling the anger in her chest start to rise. “ _Where_ are you taking me?” she almost growled. Still there was silence and soon she was taken out to a field. There were two headed cows – Brahmin – to her right and a stage and park to her left, a giant green wall in front of her. The guard who had a hold of Lauren’s arm steered her to the right towards some kind of makeshift farmland with small and yellow green bushes growing up from the dirt.

Lauren was shoved towards a bare patch of dirt and for a moment, she thought that maybe they wanted her to work for them. However, that thought was quickly discarded when she turned around and watched as the two guards pulled out and cocked their weapons. “Wait, what are you doing?”

“There is no trial for would-be murderers, you’re just lucky the Mayor doesn’t allow torture. That man you almost killed? Had a wife and three sons.” One of the guards said, his voice flat behind the baseball helmet.

“N-no! I didn’t know he was security, I swear to God I had no idea!”

The slap across her cheek was sudden and she could have sworn her brain nearly broke from its stem. “Get on your knees.” The guard growled, shoving her down.

“Don’t do this,” Lauren murmured, disgusted that she had made such a stupid, _stupid_ mistake but just could not bring herself to beg. “I have to find my son, I have to find my Shaun. He’s all alone out here, I have to find him-”

Another slap hit her hard and she tasted blood. _Fuck. Oh God. I’m so sorry Shaun, I’m so sorry_. Lauren looked up and watched as two barrels pointed directly to her chest, her mind wondering if perhaps Shaun will already be waiting for her on the other side with his dad. She then closed her eyes and willed that death would come quickly, mentally apologising to Shaun and Nate for her failure as a mother.

 

 **************

 

Piper was pacing across the limited floor space of the cell, the bang from the door down the corridor as effective as hearing the bullets that would mean Lauren’s demise. _Goddammit, how could they do that to her? How could they do that to another human being? And one looking for her son at that!_

Fury welled up inside Piper, her hands curling into fists and begging for something to punch. _All those lives lost…all those lives taken for petty goddamn crimes. That’s it. No more. I’m taking that fucker down. The Mayor is either gonna get rid of that barbaric execution or he’s gonna find his ass out on the streets_ outside _of Diamond City, even if it’s the last damn thing I do_.

The reporter let out a half growl and half yell at her state of helplessness. _This_ was exactly where she hated to be the most – knowing there was an injustice just about to happen, hell it was _happening_ , and there she was locked in a cage with no way to help. Just then, she spotted a red head walk out from a hallway and immediately called out. “Danny! Danny come here, quickly!”

The man just sighed and walked over, his eyes watching Piper suspiciously. “What, Piper? What the hell do you want now?”

“I need you to get Nick Valentine, _please_ , it’s urgent.” Danny only sighed, threw his head back and groaned. “Please Danny, I’ll owe you big!”

“ _Fine_. But I swear, if you’re up to something again–”

“Danny _please!_ ” Piper urged, relieved when she saw the man turn and head down the corridor. “Hurry up!” she called which earned her a sharp glare from over his shoulder.

Her pacing became erratic, dreading the sound of gunshots which would mean she was too late and yet another life was needlessly taken. Finally, after an indeterminate amount of time, Nick opened the corridor door and quickly made his way down to Piper. “Nick! Thank God!” Danny appeared out from behind him and stood between Piper and the synth wearily, his eyes narrowed to suspicious slits. “There’s a woman that’s about to be executed and you gotta stop it.” Danny’s head snapped around and glared at Piper. He was about to cut in when Piper continued adamantly. “Please Nick, it’s all just a misunderstanding I promise you. She didn’t mean to do any harm.”

“Piper for crying out loud!” Danny growled and turned to stop the synth but Piper grabbed the straps of his armour and pulled him roughly against the cell bars, using all her strength to keep him there.

“Nick run!” she yelled and watched as the synth huffed and turned around. Danny began struggling in her arms as Nick started jogging back up the corridor before finally he reached the door and was gone with a flash of sunlight.

“Goddammit Piper!” Danny growled and forced himself out of her grip, spinning around to shoot her a nasty glare before he turned and sprinted after the synth. Piper could only hope that Nick would get there in time and that the guard wouldn’t just turn around and shoot _her_ for what she had just done.

 

**************

 

Nick Valentine sprinted through the streets of his city, taking care not to bump into anyone in the process both for their sake and for the sake of not being slowed down in his effort to get to the mile. Finally, he turned the corner and spotted two guards who had just levelled their weapons towards a woman on her knees on the dirt with her hands bound behind her back. The sight of her distraught face framed with long brown tumbling hair tugged at Nick’s non-existent heartstrings. _She looks so much like…_

“Stop!” he called which made the guards turn their heads. Nick quickly placed himself between the guards and the woman, his hands held out in front of him in a show of being unarmed and non-threatening to them. “I’ll vouch for her, the kid made a mistake.” Both guards looked to each other before Danny caught up, his face red and lungs puffing hard.

“Valentine, move out the way. This doesn’t concern you _or_ Piper. Move.”

“Or what, kid? You’ll throw me in the slammer too? Look, let’s just work this out like civilised folk. We all make mistakes, I’m sure no harm was done right?”

One of the guards with his gun drawn squared up to Nick, his gaze flickering from the detective to the woman on her knees behind him. “She took pot-shots at one of our boys, says it was a ‘mistake’ or somethin’. You just gonna let her walk around in here?”

Nick sighed and glanced back the prisoner who was watching the guards intensely, her blue eyes both scared and confused. “Fine, but I’ll not stand here and let you murder in cold blood inside these walls. I’ll walk her out, give her the old Diamond City boot instead.”

Danny groaned to himself and scrubbed his hand across his face in exasperation. “Just. Get her out of here before McDonough finds out about it, okay?” with that the redhead turned and stalked off, muttering under his breath about sleuths and snoops working together. Nick fought every urge to chuckle as he turned around and helped the broad to her feet.

“Thank you, sir.” She said quietly, her eyes studying his. Nick nodded and waited for her wrists to be released before steering her towards Diamond City’s one and only entry and exit.

_Hopefully they’ll let the kid take her stuff back. Boy I hope Piper had a good reason for this…_

 

************ 

 

Piper was startled when the door to the corridor opened suddenly and slammed shut, a frustrated looking Danny glowering moodily at the ground as he stalked towards the locker rooms. She was going to ask him about what happened, desperate to know if somehow good ol’ Nicky made it in time but instead decided to remain quiet. After all, she did kinda push her luck enough today already.

The reporter breathed a heavy sigh and sat back down, her back against the wall as she stared up at the fixed lights in the ceiling. _Whether or not Lauren survived, I’ll make sure I’ll shut McDonough down. Executions is_ not _the way to go. If only_ -

“Piper!” Danny barked suddenly with barely disguised venom, making her flinch. “I don’t know what the hell you’re trying to do here but if you keep it up, your days are numbered. Got it?”

Piper’s brow furrowed but on the inside something in her chest lightened substantially. _Lauren got free, she must have. Fuck yes! Piper one, injustice zero. Now I just gotta hope they don’t decide to put a bullet in_ me _instead…_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, so I am not at all happy with this chapter. It has taken me ages to write it and is the main reason why this fic hasn't been updated in a while - I am also one of those boobs who write it out of order too soooo...dammit XD
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and the next chapter should be up a lot sooner.
> 
> As always, constructive feedback is definitely welcome :)


	6. Diamond City's Newest Arrival

Being a prosecutor was perhaps one of the most stressful careers one could have. It was no secret that the life of a lawyer was hard and even though no one was generally lining up to shoot you or stab you in the back the first chance they get, at times it was psychologically draining to the point of physical and emotional exhaustion. Dealing with the demands of the victims, their families and the community at large was taxing on a person, slowly eating away compassion and empathy until a hollow husk of what once was human remained. Couple that with the ever rapid waters that were the courtroom and verbal parlay between you as the Crown, the defence and the Judge himself, you have a genuine tightrope to walk where any stumble – no matter how minute – could send you flying off the deep end. If you were lucky, it just meant the case was thrown out or issued a retrial, leaving you to either walk it off or drown in a couple pints of whiskey at the end of the day. If you were unlucky, well…let’s just say half a dozen years in legal school is a lot of time and money to go to waste.

Lauren knew what it was she was getting into. The selling of her morals for more money as a defence attorney was short lived in Lauren’s career, too much of a price to pay for status and money, ironically enough. She knew just how hard and how challenging it would be in either of those professions, but like all things in her life, she dove right into the DPP head first without batting an eye. Since growing up in an orphanage until she was sixteen, Lauren had come to expect that everything in her life was to be hard. In fact, when it came easy she grew restless, anxious, anticipating the shit-storm that inevitably rolled around just to remind her that nothing came without a price.

Now in this irradiated wasteland where mutated bugs and crabs and crazy people with guns roamed – where Shaun was hidden somewhere just out of reach – Lauren would give damn near anything to have that life back. Even with the crushing anxiety of a heavy case the next day, of facing the rabid media after the accused’s conviction was quashed, of facing the tear stricken faces of the victims she inadvertently let down because the court favoured a verdict of ‘not guilty’ or favoured a sentence equal to a mere slap on the wrist. Even living with the ever present worry that Nate would never come home from the war was better than knowing that he was just gone from the world entirely.

Pulling the blankets up to her chin, Lauren buried herself deeper into the uncomfortable bed she spent the cold night in. After nearly being executed the day before, only to be saved by a man who called himself Nick Valentine when clearly he resembled a machine, Lauren could only lie there and ponder the state of her sanity. The way the man – machine – spoke was comforting, almost like he was her father or grandfather or someone of whom she could trust because the only parental figures she’s ever had in life was Nate’s. It was strange, so monumentally fucking weird to think that she got saved by a machine dressed up and talking like an old noire detective, because something like that was the stuff of Hubris Comics.

Looking around the room, Lauren wasn’t quite sure what to make of it all. The detective had sweet talked the Mayor of Diamond City to give her a second chance and to let her stay safely inside the walls of the stadium, at least for that night anyway. Where exactly she would stay hadn’t crossed her mind until the absurdity of staying in a hotel made from a locker room was dropped on her. As grateful as she was to the detective for saving her life, sleeping in a musky room smelling of centuries old urine, alcohol and body odour was not something she could ever really smile about. Especially not when the roof leaked and the droning sound of nearby generators vibrating through the concrete echoed in her head as much as it did in the small room.

But at least she wasn’t dead.

Breathing a heavy sigh, she looked down to her Pip-Boy that she hadn’t bothered taking off to see that it was five minutes past eight in the morning. She wondered briefly if people still bothered keeping track of the time, or even the date for that matter, but quickly pushed the thoughts aside and sat up in the creaking metal bed. The walls were stained with algae from where radioactive water seeped through, puddles of it growing in the corners where haphazard furniture wasn’t already propped and puddles of brownish coloured water littered the concrete floor which Lauren deftly avoided as she pulled on her dusty boots. A glance in the fogged and cracked mirror revealed an image of herself she had to double take, because the dark smudges under her eyes and the new thin lines in her face were – despite the circumstances – unexpected in the very least.

With another heavy sigh, she retrieved her musket and pushed open the creaky wooden door to greet the even stronger smell of urine and alcohol. With a nod to the barkeep, a grimace from its patrons’ rowdy demeanours and a sense of foreboding dread, she made her way to the hallway and down it to the front door. Her dog was still out in that dilapidated city and something, something, told her she’d find him not far away. So to the steps of Fenway Stadium she went, passing the skinny people dressed in tatters who regarded her with weary, tired eyes. The guards in the foyer barely glanced at her as she descended back down, her hand already itching for the musket because her boots squelched in congealed blood on the pavement.

“Excuse me officer, have you seen a dog around here? A German Shepard?”

The guard she asked gave her a withering glare, scratched at the stubble on his chin and nodded to the copper statue of the batsman outside. “That em there?” She gazed at the man wearily who wore a smirk unbefitting of a man simply telling a woman where her dog was. She looked over to where he nodded his head and supressed a horrified gasp. There, at the foot of the statue lay a heap that barely resembled a dog, its flesh torn and slowly seeping blood that gleamed in the already hot sun. Lauren ran over to it, on the verge of tears, hands shaking at the sight of raw pink flesh and scruffy brown hair poking up in all kinds of directions.

When she got to it, she dropped to her knees, clutching her chest in both sickness and relief.

It wasn’t Dogmeat.

“Fuck this world. Fuck this damn world!” She growled, wiping at her eyes and willing herself not to cry in front of the guards she could distinctly feel watching her. The dog was still alive and panting, his breath wheezing both out of his grizzled nuzzle and the numerous bullet wounds in his ribcage. Must’ve been a feral, judging by how skinny and scar ridden he was, but at the moment he was simply a dog. A lost soul gazing up at her on the brink of his own demise.

Lauren clenched her jaw, tearing her gaze from the sorry sight and scanning the open space around her where the faces of dilapidated buildings offered no guidance as to where her dog may be. She wanted to go looking of course, but where the hell would she start?

The old building where I was captured? Oh sure, lets head back to where those giant green things strung out people’s organs and painted in their blood. Towards the gunfire off in the distance? Yeah, let’s do that, because I wanna end up like this mutt – full of holes and counting down the time it takes for death to claim me.

As much as she wanted to find her trusty companion, she couldn’t bring herself to risk her life and subsequently any hope in finding and freeing Shaun from wherever he may be just because her dog went walkabouts. Besides, he’s survived this long on his own without me right? He’s got to be at least a couple years old. Hell, he’ll probably even outlive me.

“Are you okay there, lady?” Lauren shot up from her kneel on the ground and spun to face the owner of the gravelly voice. “You’re the newcomer right?” Red hair, a freckled face and boyish features. He looked no older than seventeen, far too young to be holding a gun. “The name’s Danny. I’m Captain of Diamond City Security. I know about your blunder yesterday and don’t you think I won’t forget it, but the Mayor gave you a second chance so I’m just gonna say this: if you fuck up like that again and end up hurting one of my boys or anyone in Diamond City, I will personally be the one to put you down. Got it?”

“Y-yes, of course. I don’t want any trouble.”

Green eyes studied her intently for a few moments before the stern expression on the lad softened, but only slightly. “You may wanna head inside then, we’ll keep an eye out for your dog. It’s times like this – foggy and early on – when the raiders like to try something stupid.”

“What about him?” Lauren asked, gesturing to the dying mutt on the ground between them.

Danny looked like he wanted to roll his eyes for a split second, but sighed instead and lifted his gun. The gunshot was impossibly loud and echoed in the empty, still air of the morning, making Lauren’s ears ring loudly. He gazed at her, unaffected, before gesturing to the gate behind him. “Now get a move on.”

 

**************

  

The first thing Lauren noticed when she re-entered the gates of Diamond City – this time thankfully _not_ under armed escort – was the real reason why the man Preston called it the ‘Great Green Jewel’. High green walls on every side, a dead city surrounding it completely yet on the inside it was a bustling hive of life. A diamond in the rough alright.

She stared in awe from the top of the stairs, a noodle shop – a fucking _noodle_ shop – was centre stage right in the thick of it all. What appeared to be a Protectron dressed in a chef’s hat served the patrons that seemed to have taken a break from browsing the stores that surrounded it, stores that ranged from surplus to guns and all the fun stuff in between. Children were running around playing tag, laughing and giggling as if there wasn’t a single care in the world.

Lauren couldn’t believe it.

She finally managed to get her legs working again and made it down the rest of the stairs, trying to push aside the sickness in her gut and the stress in her chest that the reality of the outside world caused and instead let her senses become swamped with humanity’s perseverance and determination to survive, to rebuild from the broken shambles of the world that came before. Lauren literally could have cried right there, out of relief, out of sadness, out of the pain that now constantly grips her heart. But she was determined to let it all go, to drop it like the dead weight that it was and start anew, at least for the moment. But she still had to find Shaun – the pain was the only constant that reminded her of what things _used_ to be like – and someone somewhere in this bustling hive of a city had the answers she needed. All she had to do was find them. _Perhaps that machine who names himself Nick Valentine could help me, but…he’s a_ machine _of all things. A robot of some kind. Yes he saved my life yesterday but could I really trust him with something like this? With finding my son?_

“Hey lady,” A child called out from the first building on Lauren’s left, making her turn out of habit and gaze up in surprise when she found that Diamond City also had what appeared to be a newspaper. The prospect sounded familiar, as did the name of the agency spelled out on a large green sign atop its roof but before she could search her memory, the little girl spoke once again. “New issue of the Publick Occurrences; the truth about the synths that hide among us.”

Lauren barely managed to catch the paper the girl tossed over and raised a brow in confusion, remembering _something_ but not before she got distracted by what the little girl had said. “What on earth is a synth?” The question came out of her mouth before she thought to keep her now obvious virginity to the Commonwealth – and Diamond City – a secret.

“You don’t know about synths? About the Institute?” the little girl asked incredulously, her innocent brown eyes bulging. Lauren had to stifle a small laugh at how high the girl’s eyebrows rose, but failed miserably.

“No, I’m afraid I don’t.” Lauren replied seriously, noticing that the little girl’s mouth popped open in obvious shock. “How much do I owe you for the paper?”

“You’re new to Diamond City right? First issue is on the house.” A female voice said from inside the gutted trailer behind the young girl. Lauren looked past to see the faint outline of the voice’s owner which appeared to be crouched down next to a large machine. From the all the clanking of metal, it was apparent the woman was trying to fix something.

“Uh, thank you.” Lauren replied genuinely, surprised yet again.

The little girl quickly jumped down from her podium which was a wooden box and turned around to address the woman excitedly. “Piper! This lady doesn’t know about synths!”

“Really?” The figure straightened and emerged from the trailer, clad in a red leather trench coat and a cap on her head with a little ‘press’ tag sticking out the side. Her strikingly beautiful feminine face was framed with black hair that fell just to touch the collar of her coat. Lauren remembered her then, the woman who was thrown into jail alongside her and mentioned something about being a reporter for the Publick. “I know you’re a vaulter Blue, but you _seriously_ don’t know about synths? About the Institute?” she asked, her elegant brow raised in suspicion. The little girl – so clearly her little sister – turned with her hands on her hips and studied the woman in blue suspiciously as if she were looking for an intricate web of lies.

For a moment there, Lauren was lost for words under the pair’s scrutiny.

“Um, no…? I guess I’m new to the Commonwealth.” she finally managed. “Never been here before.”

“I could see that as you were coming down the stairs. I think you wore the same expression Nat and I had when we first arrived here.” The woman said and flashed a wicked grin. To Lauren’s utter dismay, she felt a blush creep across her cheeks. “This is my sister Natalie, we run the Publick Occurrences like I mentioned yesterday.”

“So I guess they let you out early then?”

A large grin formed on the reporter’s lips as she nodded, then breaking out into a relieved laugh. “Yeah, thanks to Nick and his silver tongue. I’ve spent so much time in there already, almost makes me wanna go batty.” That grin of her’s surfaced again and for some reason that eluded her, Lauren found it hard to breathe for a moment. “I’m just glad Nick arrived in time to get you outta there! From what I heard, it was pretty close.”

“Wait, what? You did that?” Lauren asked incredulously.

Piper nodded, twisting her hands almost nervously at her waste with a small sheepish blush creeping across her cheeks. “Yeah, but Nicky did the leg work for me. I was…well…kinda _preoccupied_.”

Lauren chuckled quietly, already growing fond of the woman. “Thank you for that, Piper. I owe you bigtime.” The reporter just shook her head and ruffled her little sister’s hair, much to Nat’s disapproval who groaned and swatted her sister’s hand away.

“It’s all in day’s work. Come on, let me be the first to introduce you to the best noodles you’ll _ever_ taste in your life.”

 

**************

 

“My God, you weren’t kidding,” Lauren murmured, digging into her bowl of noodles with a newfound respect for the cheap and easy food. She didn’t care if the water was a peculiar shade of brown, all she had to go on out in the Commonwealth was bug meat that Preston gave her and now and then some kind of berry she found by the dozen that gave her a brain busting headache. “I never would have thought I’d be this happy eating noodles.” The two women were seated at the Power Noodles restaurant in the middle of Diamond City, its bustling life surrounding them in anonymity. Well, for Lauren anyway. Piper was almost something of a celebrity in Diamond City which was evident by the way people nodded to her or gave her dirty looks. Lauren noticed this, and also the way the guards seemed to eye Piper suspiciously as if at any moment she would erupt. For a second there, Lauren seriously questioned whether it would be a great idea to keep a reporter company, but figured the world now and the world before the atomic bombs were more than two centuries apart in terms of morality.

It couldn’t have gotten any worse for the reporters and journalists from Lauren’s world: they often fabricated stories, published lies and defamatory material about anyone just for a quick buck, just for some money from a good story even if it was entirely false. It got so bad that not even the law could touch the major companies – and Lauren had tried her damned hardest to get that to change but some power vested in the Bill of Human Rights could be twisted in such a way that the courts were left red faced and with nothing to do against it but to let the media giants get their way.

“I told you they’re the best,” Piper chuckled, unaware of Lauren’s inner ponderings and proceeded dig into her own bowl. “Good old Takahashi here is a gifted cook. I could only hope to be _half_ as good a cook as him. Nat only wishes.”

“Cooking? Never heard of it.” Lauren mumbled, somewhat thrilled to elicit a soft laugh from her companion. A few moments passed in comfortable silence, both women enjoying the company of an ever silent Takahashi who stood like a sentinel at the end of the noodle bar. It was the first moment in this new world that Lauren could turn off her status red instincts as to what was going to come jumping out to kill her next. Subsequently, she then remembered why the newspaper sounded so familiar to her. “So, did you name your newspaper after the first agency to publish a paper with multiple pages in America? The Publick Occurrences here in Boston that started up in 1690?”

Piper slowly turned on her stool and stared at Lauren long and hard, her bowl of noodles momentarily forgotten along with the English language.

“I think it’s a nice touch. The Publick Occurrences back then would’ve resembled a brighter future to the people living there, you know, it would’ve helped them get through a lot. Of course that is if you look past the massacres and wrongs that went on back in those times that the paper reported on. But aside from that, I think it would’ve been a beacon of hope, the truth that word of mouth always seems to fail at conveying. Is that what you wanted to achieve here?”

Lauren was oblivious to what was going through Piper’s head – well, what was _not_ going through her head because everything just seemed to _stop_ – but after a few silent moments, Lauren looked over to the reporter quizzically and met an odd stare. “I… I’m sorry if I said anything to offend you, Piper.”

The reporter only managed to shake her head, her mouth moving to make words but nothing came out.

_Oh crap, now you’ve done it Lauren. What the hell did you say?_ As the woman in blue tried to remember _exactly_ what she said from memory – fearing that she unknowingly blurted _something_ that could be responsible for the slightly scandalised look on the reporter’s face – the woman in red tried to remember how to think and speak again.

“H-how did you know that?” Piper finally managed, hazel eyes intently fixated on Lauren who simply shrugged her shoulders with a small smile, twirling a clump of noodles on her plastic fork.

“History buff, I guess.” Lauren said and continued eating, still oblivious to Piper’s shock.

No one, absolutely _no one_ knew that that was why Piper named her paper the Publick Occurrences. Even the ghouls who came from before the bombs fell didn’t even know that was why because of course, it was roughly four hundred years before even _their_ time. So many people had told her it was a typo, so many had tried to shame her spelling skills because ‘that was not how you spelt ‘public’’ and ‘what kind of a reporter are you if you can’t spell the name of your own agency correctly’. Piper used to try to tell them why, but most walked away without even bothering to hear her out. But _Lauren_ knew and that got her attention.

Lauren – thinking the subject was touchy and so decided to drop it – remained focused on her noodles and attempted to change the subject. “So, how long have you and Nat lived here for?”

Piper had to forcibly make herself think about that for a moment, pushing the prongs of her fork back into her noodles as her brain rebooted. “Two, three years I think. It’s kinda hard to keep track of the days sometimes, huh.”

“Yes, it is.” Lauren murmured, twisting her fork absentmindedly. It didn’t feel like she had been there in this new world for nearly only two days because to Lauren, it felt like a lifetime. Upon taking in a deep breath, she asked a question that had been bothering her ever since getting out of that damn icebox. The cold still hadn’t left Lauren’s chest and she feared it never would. “Has it really been two hundred years since the bombs fell?”

Piper gave her an odd look and managed to swallow her food before answering. “Yeah, Blue. Last time I checked. Why?”

Lauren noticed the reoccurring nickname but didn’t want to get distracted and so she answered with a small voice, trusting the woman in the press cap with her very closely guarded secret. “I…come from the world that existed before all this. I was frozen in one of Vaut-Tec’s vaults just as the bombs hit, vault one eleven to be exact. Only woke up yesterday.”

Piper stilled, her eyes widening and she was about to say something in response but gunfire _very close_ behind them cut her off. The pair spun around to see a group of men come charging down the stairs, all dressed in green military fatigues and combat armour, assault rifles larger than their arms brandished before them. Lauren and Piper each only had one thought – _NAT_.

The little girl screamed when a guard that came to her aid was shot through the chest, the bullet narrowly missing the young girl when it exited through the guard’s back. Lauren was somehow the first to reach Nat – running on pure maternal instincts – and practically tackled her out of the way of a barrage of bullets that littered the area and disintegrated the box she had been standing on mere moments ago. The poor girl was right in the thick of it all, whatever it was.

Nat clutched at Lauren as they huddled in the corner of the Publick Occurrences, the little girl struggling with maintaining a brave face while Lauren was desperately hoping the metal of the trailer was thick enough to stop the bullets from punching holes through them both. One of them rounded the corner and spotted the pair to which the sole survivor responded by launching herself at him and plunging her knife deep into his throat. She took the man’s gun from his grasp as he fell to the ground – realising she left her own at the noodle bar, not that the empty fusion musket would’ve helped – and turned to fire upon the group of men clustered at the foot of the stairs. The rifle had more recoil then Lauren was expecting but she managed to down three more before one of the remaining two managed to lodge a bullet into her shoulder. With a growl of pain, Lauren pushed herself to keep firing until both dropped dead in a pool of blood. And then there was just silence. Deep, deafening silence.

Nat was cowering in the corner, her eyes scanning for her sister who was nowhere to be found. The corpses of the guard and the dead intruder with Lauren’s knife still in his throat lay at her boots, both of which were staring blankly up into the deep blue sky above. Blood ran down Lauren’s arm, the pain from her wound masked with the rush of adrenaline that had yet to wear off. She was in somewhat of a trance, her chest heaving and her eyes pinned on the bodies clustered in a lump at the foot of the stairs to the once peaceful Diamond City. _Could it really have been so calm only moments ago? Did that really just happen?_ Her eyes dropped to her shoulder where a deep hole was punched through her vault suit, the already large swatch of red spreading rapidly through the blue. _Oh my God…I just got shot…holy fuck why can’t I feel it yet?!_

Lauren was only shaken out of it when she spotted the woman in the red trench coat approach with a slight limp in her step, her 10mm pistol clutched in her hand. “ _Piper_! Are you okay?” Nat exclaimed with a wavering voice, rushing out to throw her arms around her big sister who was grinning despite obviously being in pain. Her hazel eyes glared at the corpses just over Nat’s shoulder as she enfolded the little girl in a protective embrace.

“Yeah Nat, I’m fine. Caught one in the leg but it’s just a scratch.” Piper then looked up to Lauren over Nat’s small shoulder, a thankful glance being cast her way. “Thank you, Blue, I don’t-” Piper cut off when she spotted the large bullet hole in Lauren’s shoulder. “Oh _shit_! Are you okay?”

Lauren’s brow furrowed slightly as she looked down and spotted the rivulets of blood leading down her arm and off her fingers, the discarded gun below was almost completely covered in her blood. She remembered the kick the bullet’s impact had in her shoulder and wondered fleetingly if it was a straight through shot and whether that was why she couldn’t seem to feel a damn thing. “I’m fine.” _I think._

Nat just rolled her eyes as she studied the stranger, her trembling hands moving to her hips again. “Another hard head, just what we need.” Lauren only grinned shakily and patted Nat’s shoulder with her good hand as she shakily walked past to retrieve her rifle from the noodle bar. She needed desperately to get rid of the _off_ feeling that had nestled in her belly when the first of the intruders’ bullets shot through the peaceful air. Diamond City’s guards began converging on the scene in a mad rush, people were poking their heads out from wherever they were hiding and even Takahashi seemed to stare at the scene from behind the noodle bar, the little chef’s hat remained unscathed. Lauren almost made it back to her gun before her vision went blurry, her balance was lost and the last thing she saw was dirt and blood before she hit the muddy ground.

 

**************

 

Lauren finally came to around late afternoon with the sight of a badly rusting metal ceiling greeting her weary eyes. After drawing in a deep breath, she let out a soft groan and immediately regretted making a move to sit up. “Hey there, stay down. Don’t want you hurting yourself any further.” A soft voice said to her left, startling Lauren.

“What happened?” she managed through a tight throat, using her good arm to brush her fingers through her hair. She turned her head to spy a woman – Piper – lounging in a chair with her leg slightly raised and a bandage around her thigh. There were a couple small red blotches from where the doctor patched her up. Piper gazed at her for a second, shaking her head just slightly before answering.

“You dropped like a sack o’ tatos.” It was all she said at first, but added with a cocked eyebrow and a faint smile. “Right after you said you were _‘fine’_.” She exaggerated the last word with imitated bunny ears and stuck her tongue out when Lauren rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, okay. That sounds like me.” Lauren sighed and rubbed her eyes briefly before forcing herself to sit up. She tried hiding the wince of pain but should’ve known better, the reporter spotted it right away.

“Jeez, Blue. I think you may be more stubborn than me. Nat was right.” Piper gestured over her shoulder to a cot in the corner of the room where a little bundle was curled up and softly snoring. Dark hair and the ears of a teddy bear poked out from under the blanket.

“How is she? Is she okay?” The woman in blue asked, remembering what the little girl must have witnessed. She couldn’t imagine a child seeing a man die right in front of her who was only trying to protect her, and then another half a dozen being shot down who were trying to harm others – including her sister – all the while _she_ was just trying to sell papers for a living.

Piper contemplated the woman in front of her, noticing the faint line of genuine worry creasing the woman’s brows as she gazed at Piper while nursing her injured shoulder. “Nat’s…fine. A little shook up, but she’s okay.” There was a slight pause, the only noise being that of a faint whirring sound from a nearby generator outside. “Lauren, I know I said it before but I’m just gonna say it again. Thank you so much for doing what you did for her. I don’t know what I’d do if she got hurt. She’s all I have, Blue. Thank you for protecting her.”

Lauren just shook her head and offered a small smile, uncomfortable with the praise for something she didn’t even think twice about doing. “No thanks needed. It’s what anyone would do.”

It was Piper’s turn to shake her head. After all the times something bad had happened to her and her sister, not _one time_ had anyone stepped in to help them. “No, it’s not. The guards took one look at them, saw they were Gunners and very nearly ran for hills.” The woman in the red trench coat sighed and started absentmindedly spinning her press cap on her finger, her hazel eyes going distant. Thoughtful. “I don’t know if you know much about those guys, probably not considering you don’t even know about _synths_ , but they’re nasty. I mean, scum of the scum, maybe even a little worse than raiders. Those guys take and pillage whatever the hell they want, leaving _no_ survivors. At least with _raiders_ , they’ll pester a farm here and there just to keep themselves going, only killing when they really have to, when the folk try to stand up to them but can’t follow through. Oftentimes it only ends in a few farmers with shattered egos and even _less_ food to go around. Don’t get me wrong, raiders are scum too, but the Gunners? They take people for all they’re worth and then needlessly burn everything to the ground when the fun's over.”

A cold, very cold feeling began growing in Lauren’s chest as she realised–

“They’re sick, _sick_ people, Blue, and to top it off, they’ll take on any job to do almost any _thing_ as long as the caps are good. And I mean killing people, torturing, kidnapping and – _Blue_? Blue are you okay?”

For Lauren, the whole room was spinning. She felt like the entire earth had dropped out from under her. “I-I know why they were here.” She sputtered hoarsely, grateful for Piper’s steading hand on her good shoulder.

“What do you mean?”

“I came across a farm to the north west, the smoke caught my attention and when I got there, there was this family that was being beaten and–and–” Lauren was instructed to take a steady breath in, and continued when she had done so. “It must have been them, the Gunners. Men dressed in green just like the guys today. They were there and doing what you just said: beating, raping, _murdering_ these people. I had to step in, there was no way I could’ve just walked away and so I pulled out my gun and took them down. But I let one kid go. He was just a boy, Piper, couldn’t have been over fourteen. He was begging me not kill him, he was crying his eyes out for mercy and I hesitated. He took advantage of that and got up and started running away. I couldn’t bring myself to shoot the kid in the back so I just let him be and went to help the surviving farmers. If I had of known…God. He must have went back to the Gunners and told them what happened…” Lauren drifted off, her mind wondering if they returned to those poor people and finished what they started. She had no idea that her eyes were starting to brim with tears despite the stinging. The sight tugged at Piper’s heart. “They must have followed me here, must’ve planned on taking me out when I left the city or something. Oh God…I went out there just before to get Dogmeat…they could’ve been there waiting.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Piper murmured softly, trying to banish the slight twinge of her own worry. “You did the right thing. You couldn’t have anticipated what that kid would do and besides, it’s not like you abandoned Diamond City to fight your battles for you. You saved my little sister,” the reporter’s voice hitched slightly but she nevertheless continued. “And you saved countless others as well. So, Diamond City thanks you.”

Lauren nodded absently, trying to banish the guilt from gripping her heart. “Thanks Piper.”

Lauren’s words were hollow and Piper knew it, but nodded anyway before removing her hand from the woman’s shoulder. She started watching her intently, wondering to herself just how much this woman knew about the men she tore down singlehandedly. To say Piper was impressed was a little bit of an understatement, but she knew the type of people who sign up for the Gunners and she also knew what they did to people who kill their brothers and sisters.

“I _really_ don’t want to make things worse for you here, Blue, but you need to know that they’ll be out for blood now. Somehow – and I mean, _literally_ like Grognak from the Unstoppables kinda thing – you took down _two groups_ of those scum.” Piper grinned despite the circumstances which brought on a faint laugh from the woman in front of her. “So, all I’m saying is, be careful out there and watch your back. Or better yet, get someone to watch it _for_ you.”

Despite her smile, Lauren just shook her head. “I’ll be fine on my own. I don’t need to trouble anyone else with my problems.”

Piper just scoffed and leaned back in her chair, eyes on Blue. “ _Riiight_. Like the last time you said you’re ‘fine’ turned out so well.”

 

**************

 

Lauren spent the rest of the afternoon and night at the Dugout Inn courtesy of Piper Wright who adamantly paid for it – in _caps_ of all things – despite Lauren’s vehement protests. The fist of guilt and anxiety was constantly nestled in her chest and earlier, when Piper was walking her over from the doctor’s office – again, despite Lauren’s protests – Lauren could not bring herself to look at the dark stains of blood that marred the steel steps of the stadium. In the time it took for Lauren to wake, the guards moved the bodies and most likely burned them somewhere. It was what people did nowadays. No one would risk going outside the safety of Diamond City just to bury someone, it would most likely end up with the mourners themselves being killed in the streets and left to rot alongside the corpse itself.

Lauren tried not to think of the fact that she took so many lives that day, she tried not to think that by saving Nat’s, she redeemed herself with whatever deity still existed because it sure as shit wouldn’t be God simply watching over that hell-hole and not doing anything about it. As she lay there in the most comfortable bed she’d been in since what felt like forever, flickers of muzzle flash and blood assaulted her vision behind her closed lids. With a sigh, she rolled onto her good shoulder, her eyes landing on her musket which stood proudly next to the bedside table.

Although she liked weapons before the war, mostly those used in competitions and for sport only, Lauren never really understood just what guns were _actually_ for. Of course, it would take an idiot not to know that they were obviously _used_ for killing, but their _purpose_ seemed so different to her in the Commonwealth than it did before the war. Guns in the Commonwealth were a necessity, a way of life, but back then they were simply a means of getting what the owner wanted through violence and bloodshed or simply a way to blow off steam. Lauren instead fought her battles with words and logic, something that kept Nate and her distinctly separate from each other in almost everything.

She shuddered again at the onslaught of images from earlier and brought the thin blankets up closer to her jaw, the cold not coming in from the outside but was instead growing from within her, clawing its way from her heart through her lungs and into everywhere else inside.

She wondered how people could survive out in the Commonwealth with nothing but rabid animals and evil people alike to keep them company; how they could find a way, a _reason_ to live when they’ve just watched a family member or friend be gunned down by some fool over something trivial like wealth who’ve just burned to ashes all their life’s work with a cigarette. The world had most certainly turned for the worse and Lauren found herself wondering words which were slipping away on the tide of sleep that was slowly washing over her – _how does Piper do it?_

 

**************

 

Piper awoke with a start and immediately regretted the tensing of her muscles. A stab of pain shot through her leg and it was all she could do but to grit her teeth and wait it out. With a heavy expulsion of air when the pain finally subsided to a manageable degree, she managed to shimmy over to the edge of the bed and plant her bare feet on the wooden floor. She peered through a small hole in the wood and saw that Nat’s room – which was more like a cozy little corner of the house – was empty. “Ohhh dammit Natalie. The _one day_ you actually go to school on time and I need you.” Piper muttered to herself and braced her body for the onslaught. Her breath was held in her lungs and sealed with her gritted teeth once more as she pushed herself off the bed and stumbled to her desk, hissing a sigh when she regained her balance. “Goddammit.” A couple of drawers down, Piper found what she was looking for and immediately jabbed it into her leg right next to her wound. As the purple liquid slowly began to trickle into her blood stream, a wave of euphoria ran over her and the searing pain quickly subsided and was replaced with merely a dull ache.

_Gonna have to pick up some stimpaks from the doc later…maybe I’ll introduce Lauren to good old med-x – oh wait…! Oh_ shit _!_


	7. Diamond City Blues

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

Lauren groaned and threw her arm over her eyes, her mind being dragged out of the murky clutches of a dreamless sleep from the incessant pounding on the door of her rented room.

_Bang! Bang! Bang!_

“Come on, sunshine!”

Lauren groaned again and rolled over onto her side and immediately regretted it. “ _What_?” she snapped through gritted teeth, nursing her still sore shoulder. A thunderous roar of laughter bellowed from the Russian man on the other side of the door.

“Not a morning person eh? Not to bother, Yefim is like that too.” Each excessively loud word Vadim said was like a jackhammer to Lauren’s throbbing head. She sat up, rubbing at her face and sighed heavily, feeling the heavy weight of her limbs as she blinked herself into consciousness. “Anyway, there is woman here to see you. So throw some clothes on, wash those pits and get rid of mistress before the missus catches on, eh?”

Lauren’s brows furrowed as she heard the thunderous laughter followed by heavy footsteps walk away, the same laughter then returning a few seconds later from the bar in the bowels of the inn. With a small shake of her head, Lauren turned to her shoulder and visually assessed the damage. Underneath the bandage that the mysterious doctor she had yet to meet had taped to her, lay a neat hole in her flesh that was pink around the edges from where the stimpaks had begun their work of slowly patching her up. On the way back to the inn the night before, Piper had told her to drink lots of water which would help speed up the stimpaks’ work. Lauren of course, had forgotten and went straight to the tub in the corner of her room to wash the blood and sweat and dirt away. Her vault suit still hung from the hanger above it where she had placed it after washing most of the blood out. If there was one thing Lauren hated more than eating Preston’s bug meat and migraine inducing berries, it was the metallic, rusty smell of old blood which brought back too many memories of her childhood…

It was then when she heard feint footsteps coming and remembered that she apparently had a mysterious visitor. Lauren looked down and saw she was still in her undergarments which barely covered anything at all.

“ _Dammit!”_ she hissed and leapt to get her suit despite the strain it caused her sore muscles. Just as a knock sounded on the door and the click of the handle was heard, the zipper on Lauren’s vault suit got caught half way up her midsection and the woman who came to visit got an unexpected eyeful of Lauren’s barely covered cleavage.

“Oh my G– crap _,_ _sorry_!” Piper squealed and closed the door quickly. Shocked and more than a little embarrassed, Lauren roughly pulled the zipper up and buried her blushing face in her hands. _Okay. Okay. Don’t worry. She probably didn’t see anything at all, just that you were getting dressed. It’s not like it even_ matters _anyway, right? Piper’s a woman, so it’s not like she was seeing anything new…oh fucking hell._

Piper meanwhile was pacing on the other side of the door, her heart thumping heavily in her chest for any number of reasons. _OhmyGodItotallysawherboobs!_ Piper thought frantically. _Nat was right, why don’t I_ ever _knock?! Wait. I did knock. Didn’t I? I mustn’t have. But I’m pretty sure…wait…aarrrgghhh you’re an idiot Piper!_

In a matter of moments, Lauren’s door opened and a slightly embarrassed looking woman greeted her with a small smile, her dark brown hair in loose tumbles upon her shoulders. It reminded Piper of the elegantly drawn hairstyles of comic book heroines. “Good morning, Miss Wright.”

“Uh, good morning Blue. S-sorry about that. I didn’t know you were – you know – umm…yeah. Sorry.” Piper – despite her best effort – couldn’t control the blush that still burned furiously across her freckled cheeks. Lauren only smiled warmly and shook her head, her own cheeks barely a shade out of the ordinary.

“It’s fine. We’re both women Piper, I’m sure it’s nothing you haven’t already seen before. Anyway, you wanted to see me?” At Lauren’s words, Piper couldn’t help but burst out laughing and was insanely relieved when Lauren started laughing too. After a minute, the pair regained control of themselves and managed to look the other in the eyes. “Let me rephrase that,” Lauren continued, making Piper giggle further. “You wanted to _talk_ to me?”

“Yes,” Piper grinned, her gloved hands fidgeting at her waist. “I was wondering if maybe you would do an interview for the paper. You know, give an outsider’s perspective on the Commonwealth and Diamond City. The cherry on top is that you’re from the old world, probably the most interesting background story out there and–” Piper had to stop herself from rambling too much and forced herself to refocus on Lauren, meeting the woman’s warm brown gaze. “It’s just, I really think the people of Diamond City can benefit from what you have to say. You know, considering that your views and ours will be so different yet there you were yesterday, saving our asses from the Gunners even though you totally don’t owe us a thing.”

Lauren leaned her good shoulder on the doorframe, letting the smile of the other woman distract her from the anxious feeling in her chest. “Well…judging by what I’ve already been through in a day or two…” she cocked an eyebrow. “I’d say I can whip up something good with that.”

Piper just laughed, something she realised she had been doing a lot around this stranger.

 

*******************

 

Knowing what had happened the day before, Lauren was pleasantly surprised to see that Diamond City as a whole seemed largely unaffected by it all, despite the causalities of security personnel that manned the front entrance. Consequently, there were more guards posted to the entrance than there were the previous day, however the residents and traders wondering the marketplace seemed unafraid of a repeat invasion from the Gunners. In fact, the only thing that remained a permanent reminder were the few added bullet holes in various metal walls, the Publick Occurrences included. Nat even seemed to have found a new box to stand on although the papergirl herself was nowhere in sight. Lauren assumed that Piper had kept her inside as a precaution and meant to ask her about it but was distracted by a commotion in front of the Power Noodles restaurant.

“He’s a synth!” a shaky voice yelled and caused every head in the marketplace to swivel his way. The man had his gun raised by trembling arms, sweat beading his brow as he glared down the barrel at another man who had his arms raised.

“Jacob! Listen to me – I’m not a synth! I’m your damn _brother_ for crying out loud!”

The man holding the gun shook his head violently and glanced around at the gathering crowd like each one of them could validate his story. But instead they stood like sentinels, watching with weary eyes and fearful faces. A few guards had walked up by then, one of them muttering something with venom towards Piper who stood just in front and to the side of Lauren next to the doctor’s stall. Lauren couldn’t hear what was said but judging by the way Piper’s face paled, it couldn’t have been good.

“Put the gun down, Kyle.” Another guard demanded, emphasising each word carefully to the man with the pipe pistol. He looked at the guard and shook his head violently, the gun shaking in his hands.

“No! I won’t! This is _not_ my brother!” he yelled, his voice breaking. “The Institute took him and replaced him with this robot!”

“I am not going to ask you again.”

A beat of silence passed and then a single loud _bang_ rang out and echoed throughout the entire marketplace. Lauren and Piper both flinched back and there were a few startled yelps from the gathered crowd as the head of the man who held the gun near enough exploded on his shoulders. His brother – the accused synth – stared in horror as the lifeless corpse dropped to the ground with an audible _thump_. “Kyle, _no!_ ”

Piper had covered her mouth with her hands in horror, looking over to Lauren who was fighting a wave of nausea as the body’s limbs twitched and spasmed. The guard who pulled the trigger demanded that the crowd leave before turning back around to face Piper, his grey eyes flicking from the reporter to Lauren and back before he spoke loudly enough for them both to hear. “ _This_ was _your_ handiwork, Wright. _Stop_ with the scare mongering.” He turned his head to Lauren, gave a perfunctory nod and then stalked past them without another word. Lauren listened to the wet clomping of his boots as she watched the accused synth sink to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he reached for his brother’s corpse. It was then when she had to look away, feeling something of herself shift and crack inside. It was so surreal, to witness a life being snuffed out right in front of her like that. But she remembered the events of the past two days and immediately felt sick to her stomach. Even _her_ hands are covered in blood now.

“Oh God…” Piper whispered hoarsely which snapped Lauren out of her thoughts. “He’s right.”

The woman in blue cleared her throat, not trusting that it wouldn’t give out on her when she spoke. “Hey, no he’s not right, Piper. _You_ didn’t do that.” But she was cut off with Piper’s shaking head and a swift slice of a gloved hand through the air.

“No Blue, _I_ didn’t. But the _Institute_ did.” Hazel eyes met her own with a newly ignite spark of anger. “You saw what just happened there, Blue. The Institute is behind all this: kidnapping people, replacing them with cheap knock offs that look like the real deal but isn’t fooling anybody. It’s not right and I’m damn well gonna get to the bottom of this.” With that, the fiery reporter stormed off towards the Publick Occurrences, the limp in her step that Lauren noticed beforehand having vanished completely before the woman herself did.

“You know, you should really reconsider whether or not it’s worth keeping that kind of company around, stranger.” A male voice said to Lauren’s right, startling her. She turned around to see a man with a greying head of black hair, stress lines around his eyes and along his forehead. The man wore a white lab coat – with smeared brown something on the front – and a stethoscope which hung around his neck. Doctor Sun, it seemed. “Don’t get me wrong, Piper is a nice enough person – certainly nicer than most you’ll ever meet out here – but don’t be fooled into her shenanigans. She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”

Lauren eyed the man for a moment before deciding not to comment and instead, nodded once in recognition. “You must be Doctor Sun?”

“Yes that’s me. How is your shoulder?” If he recognised her reluctance to discuss the matter further, he didn’t show it, but instead gestured for Lauren to enter into his makeshift clinic.

“It’s still sore, but aside from that it’s fine.”

“No loss of movement?” He asked to which Lauren shook her head. “No numbness or tingling? Any discolouration?”

“None.”

The doctor nodded and proceeded to withdraw two stimpaks from his first aid box. After tabbing the amount of caps he was owed to be collected at a later date, the doctor instructed Lauren to use one immediately and every four hours after that until the hole is fully healed. “Now, I know you would have used one of these before, but make sure you get it as close to the wound as possible.”

Lauren stared blankly at the doctor, realising she had no idea how to administer the needle. “Uh, could you run me through it? You know, just to make sure I’ve got the right technique.” Doctor Sun studied her for a moment before proceeding. _Goddamn, I should have taken biology or something when I had the chance at school_. As a matter of fact, Lauren actually _did_ but was far too busy getting up to mischief with her friends back in high school, from sneaking off to do weed in the nearby park to having sex with Nate in his car. _Oh Nate…I wonder how many times you’ve had to do this in the war…I wonder how many times you saw what we just did – needless killing, needless suffering. No wonder why you never spoke about it…_

“Are you listening?” Doc Sun said sharply.

“Y-yes, sorry. I-I just don’t like needles much.”

“As I was saying, you need to insert the needle at a forty-five degree angle. It doesn’t really matter if it is in an artery or a vein as such, but for maximum efficiency it is best to insert into the crook of your elbow for an injury such as this.” He demonstrated the angle, the force needed to pierce the skin and then proceeded to explain the importance of keeping it steady once it was under her skin.

“Thank you again, doctor. Hopefully I won’t be seeing you too often.” Lauren said with a small grimace as she saw the size of the needle. The doctor merely shrugged in response, the both of them knowing all too well that in all likelihood, they would be seeing a _lot_ of each other in the days to come.

 

*******************

 

“So you’re saying leather armour is betting against laser damage than ballistics,” Arturo nodded with a small smile, appreciating that the new woman to visit his stall wasn’t one of those types of customers that think they know it all just because they’ve been in a few gunfights and lived to tell the tale. Lauren continued with a distant look in her eyes, oblivious to how the man’s gaze appreciatingly observed the unconscious purse of her lips. “And metal armour is the other way around.”

“Exactly,” Arturo replied with another nod, his eyes lingering on Lauren long enough that she finally took notice. “Armour will not stop a bullet or laser completely, but it is best to ensure you know the characteristics of what you are wearing in order to achieve maximum protection where possible.”

Lauren nodded, her mind ticking over the best option for her. She hadn’t yet encountered anyone using a laser weapon except that Preston fellow back in Concord, but all the same, she didn’t want to be caught off guard. “But metal armour does offer _some_ protection against lasers, right?”

“Yes, although it is a lot heavier and more cumbersome, however it will complement well with what you are wearing now.” He replied. “In other words, the tightness of your suit will in turn allow the armour to fit more…securely on your body. It won’t move and it won’t be as cumbersome to carry and move around in. You should be able to carry the extra weight well.”

Lauren shifted uncomfortably, fighting the urge to cross her arms over her breasts. “Well, I think I’d prefer to deal with the extra load. How many caps do I need to save up?”

Arturo thought for a moment and gave a small shrug, his brown eyes glittering and his smile not at all honest. “Since you’re new to Diamond City, dealt with those Gunner buffoons yesterday and actually listened to what I had to say,  I’ll offer you a once in a lifetime deal that you will never get anywhere else. You trade me that laser musket and the entire ensemble is yours.”

Lauren glanced at the musket that hung from a strap from her shoulder. “You know it’s empty, right?”

“Right,” Arturo’s eyes lit up just slightly. “But I know for a fact that it has a component quite rare and particularly important within it that I will use for the construction of a very special project of mine.”

Lauren gazed at him for a moment, knowing from past experience that people don’t do favours for _anyone_ unless there’s something in it for them. Especially if they were strangers, which is exactly was this odd fellow was to her. Regardless, however, the metal he plonked on the table in front seemed to be genuine as did the leather straps which adorned it and considering she damn well couldn’t shoot with the musket anyway, what could she possibly lose from a potentially shitty deal? “Alright, Arturo. Let’s trade.”

 

As it turned out, the armour actually _was_ a tad bit on the heavier side, but once Lauren managed to secure it to her limbs and torso it felt like the weight vanished and replaced itself with an odd feeling of security. She just had to be careful of nearby people: her shoulders were encased in large plates that were welded to a point which stuck out either side of her. She chuckled to herself when she thought of a super villain from a movie she watched with Nate, but it immediately melted away when the memories came back and an overwhelming wave of grief and nausea swept over her so suddenly that she had to plant her hands on the wall of the Dugout Inn’s room to stop herself from falling over. She found herself gasping for breath, the heart that beat in her chest started pumping harder, drowning out all sound until it was all she could hear. _Stop it. Just stop. It’s over. It’s done. He’s gone. You can’t do anything to change any of that. But you_ will _find Shaun and everything_ will _work out. It has to. Just…just focus on finding Shaun and you’ll get through it. You’ll be fine._

She knew she wouldn’t, but it was all she could do but to try and convince herself that she was strong enough to come to grips with what happened, even if it took her the rest of her life. She’ll get through it. She has to. For Shaun. For Nate. For the family that was stolen from her before she even had it.

With a shuddering sigh, the woman out of time pushed away from the wall and steeled her restraint on the emotions hidden behind her well-practiced mask.

 

*******************

 

“Hey Nat, how are you?” Lauren greeted the young girl with a forced smile and was met with narrowed brown eyes and a slight scowl. It must’ve been the girl’s way of affection, because she tucked the bundle of newspaper under her arm, leapt off the box and gave Lauren a quick, one-armed hug before saying a single word.

“You look like one of the bad guys from Grognak, only blue.” Nat pulled back and squinted up to her.

“You know, I’ve read all his comic books. What issue are you up to?” Lauren replied which elicited an enthusiastic gasp from the girl.

“Issue number fifty seven! How many _are_ there? Who’s the Mysterious Stranger? Wait, no! I don’t want to know.”

Lauren only laughed, relieved to see that the little girl wasn’t mentally scarred from what happened the day before. At least, not on the outside anyway. Only time will tell in that regard, but of course this was the world Nat had lived in since birth. _Every_ child’s world now, one with real monsters lurking in the shadows that no doubt made Grognak’s adventures seem timid in comparison. The thought was unbearably sobering. “So what’s your sister up to?”

There was a heavy huff and the stomping of a single little foot atop the new box before Nat exaggeratedly replied with a sassy eye roll, the papers now rested on her elevated knee. “She’s in a _mood_ , lady. When I got back from school, she was sitting at her terminal trying to write the next issue. She didn’t even say hi to me, just grumbled something angry and continued to type. Piper can go on like that for _days_. It’s not healthy. I’ve even seen her attacking her computer before! Although she hurt her hand pretty bad and when she couldn’t type afterwards she just sulked and ate candy all day.” It was very, very hard for Lauren not to smirk at the mental image. “Do you want to see her?” Nat finally asked, cocking her head to the side. “You’re brave if you do.”

Lauren thought for a moment and decided it was probably best for her own personal wellbeing that she not disturb the reporter, considering what the little girl had just said _and_ from what she saw earlier that day, being the fire in the woman’s eyes that was most certainly something Lauren did _not_ want to get on the receiving end of. “No, that’s okay. Could you tell her later that whenever she’s ready I’ll do that interview for the paper?”

The little girl nearly fell off the box. “ _Oh_! That was _you_?! _You_ were frozen for two hundred years? Go _inside_! Piper will kill me _and_ you if you don’t!”

Lauren only laughed, deciding that the little girl was most certainly a lot like her sister. “Okay, okay. But if I get morbidly injured or killed, my ghost is totally going to haunt you.”

Nat just stuck her tongue out and grinned.

 

*******************

 

When Lauren entered the house, she was surprised by the size of it. From the outside, it looked no bigger than a car shed, but the inside was spacious and surprisingly homey. To the left was obviously Piper’s work station, with tools and all sorts of mechanical bits and pieces strewn about on metal tables in organised chaos. To her right was the apparent living area, with a low lying coffee table and a stuffed couch that had seen too many years beyond its expiry. “Piper?”

There was no answer, just the steady tempo of almost frantic tapping coming from the second floor that conspicuously sounded a lot like the keyboard of a terminal. As she climbed the stairs – carefully because they creaked and bent suspiciously under her weight – Lauren could make out quiet, angry muttering even before the reporter herself came into view.

Piper was seated at a metal table, her eyes focused intently on the screen, unaware of Lauren who decided to wait until there was a pause in her steady typing before announcing herself.

“Hey,” came a soft voice to Piper’s left and she nearly jumped out of her skin.

“ _HolyGOD – BLUE!!!_ ” The reporter was a flurry of legs and arms as she leapt from her chair. Upon regaining her equilibrium, hand clutched to her chest which rose and fell rapidly, Piper glared at the woman who cautiously stood at the top of the stairs. Her heart felt like it was going to explode.

“Sorry.” Lauren said sheepishly, failing to hide her look of amusement. Piper stared her down for a moment, a slight blush creeping along her cheeks before she stalked towards the woman. It would have been threatening had she not been blushing so profusely.

“ _You,_ ” Piper growled, her finger pointing at the centre of Lauren’s armour encased chest. “Nearly gave me a damn heart attack.”

Lauren – wisely – chose to remain silent. An angry Piper Wright reminded her of an armed squirrel high on caffeine, but she’ll be damned if she said _that_ to her. Despite her best efforts though, she couldn’t contain her smile which was immediately mirrored by Piper who just shook her head and sat back down with a soft sigh, unconsciously rubbing at the healing wound in her leg. “What do you need, Blue? I hope you haven’t gotten yourself shot at again.”

“Why do you call me that?” Lauren asked with a raised brow, hooking her thumbs into her belt. Piper narrowed her eyes slightly and vigorously chewed the gum in her mouth.

“Well duh, look at you. I mean, aside from looking like the Warmonger of Doom from Grognak, you’re _literally_ blue.” Piper replied with a small smirk. She decided the armour looked good, sturdy even and most certainly enough to cover Lauren so wondering eyes couldn’t– _uh stop it, Piper, you damn perve. First you see her boobs now you’re imagining what the rest of her looks like. Great. Nice going, jerk._

“Thanks. I think.”

“So what’s your full name then?”

Lauren just smiled again, one that spoke of a deep sadness. “Lauren Kane.” In response to Piper’s lift of an eyebrow, she elaborated _._ “I’m married.” Lauren paused, lost somewhere between the distant past and the present, before she came back and focused on Piper again. “ _Was_ married. I took my husband Nathanial’s last name.”

“Lauren and Nathanial Kane,” Piper couldn’t help but give her a small smile. “You two sounded like a cute couple.” The reporter noticed the shadows that had passed through the other woman’s eyes and knew exactly what had happened, for she herself was no stranger to that very same look.

Lauren smiled softly and offered a slight shrug. “Thanks.”

“Soooo you don’t mind me callin’ you Blue?” Piper pressed, moving the conversation onto what she hoped was safer ground and watched the woman intently. Lauren seemed so…lost. Vulnerable. But the woman just smiled politely and shook her head.

“No, I don’t mind at all. Anyway, I was wondering when you’d like to do that interview. I can come back later if you’re busy?”

Piper thought for a moment, her hazel eyes flicked from the screen of her terminal to Lauren before she smiled, picking up her pen and notepad and nodding to the living room. “How about now?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Put a cheeky reference to Batwoman in there, and I know this chapter was a bit bland but the next chapter is going to have a lot more action in it. Pinky promise :p


	8. The Common

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, sorry for the lack of updates guys. I’ve been having a hell of a time with writer’s block lately but I won’t quit writing this story until it’s good and finished. That’s a promise!

The midday sun was high and burning incessantly hot, glaring down at the two women who had just exited from the Publick Occurrences. For an hour and a half Piper had grilled Lauren on the world before, on who she was and what she believed in while also trying to teach the woman out of time as much as she could about the Commonwealth as it is _now_. She’d explained the distinction between Nick and the other synths, the ones that replace people and do the Institute’s bidding, and she’d also explained as much as she could about the universal way in which people were brought up nowadays. Fear the unknown, shoot first before ever asking any questions and always, _always_ look out for number one. Themselves.

In turn, Piper learned that Lauren was a prosecutor – someone who strived to be the near impersonation of justice itself – and found herself impressed with how the woman seemingly took pride in fighting for both the State _and_ the victims of crime. Lauren had tried to teach the reporter the roundabout process of the criminal justice proceedings, having to explain many years’ worth of information in a way that someone who hadn’t known what a lawyer was could understand. Piper was a quick study, learning fast the fundamentals like due process and the two standards of the burden of proof. But the reporter was more concerned with finding out about Lauren _personally_ considering that, unlike the rigorous court proceedings, Lauren had survived the atomic bombs.

Piper learned that Lauren was born in Boston and despite being vague about her upbringing, said she’d had a childhood ‘not too different from other kids in school.’ There was something there, something just under the surface of the woman’s exterior that clued Piper into the fact that she wasn’t giving her the full story, but for the sake of being polite, Piper didn’t push. Instead, she let the woman continue to vaguely mention that she had studied law in Cambridge and later practiced in the heart of the city itself.  She’d met her husband through her job, detailing that he was a key witness in a case involving grievous bodily harm of an elderly person and that they could only go on the date he pestered her about _after_ the case and the subsequent appeals were settled.

Lauren had avoided most personal questions by diverting the reporter’s attention elsewhere – a skill she’d used for the courtroom when trying to persuade the jury – and thought herself mostly successful in doing so. However, unbeknownst to her, Piper knew _exactly_ what she was doing but held back in respect of what the woman has recently gone through. She knew that waking up two hundred years in the future would be hard for anyone and the last thing Lauren needs is a reporter badgering her over her personal life, so Piper let sleeping dogs lay for the time being and instead asked about how the world was run, how beautiful it was and how exactly it came to the point of war. After a while, Lauren seemed to withdraw from their conversation, trying valiantly to hide the emotion in her eyes, so Piper suggested instead that she show the woman around the Great Green Jewel. And there they were, walking toward Nick Valentine’s Detective Agency like the reporter had done many times in the past. Only this time, she had walking beside her the story of a century. Or perhaps two.

But for Lauren, the post-apocalyptic world seemed to keep amazing her every waking moment she spent in it. Sure she heard Nick say he was a detective, but she figured it was kind of like a police officer, a regulation authority considering how well he’d handled the guards when stopping her execution. But to know that he actually has a detective _agency_? As routine and mundane as it was in the world before, to think of one actually being useful in a world like this was uncanny.

What could people possibly hire a detective for? A lost Brahmin? A stolen carrot? A hat gone missing?

The thought that stopped her mind cold was of course little Shaun. Could this man, Nick, possibly be able to help her find her missing boy? Was that his reason for opening a detective agency? Was kidnappings so regular an occurrence that a man can make a living hunting down leads for their families? Could that possibly be a motive for stealing her baby? Money? Ransome?

Lauren was quick enough to slip on her well-practiced pokerface when Piper glanced to her before opening the door to Nick’s agency, masking the worry of a mother over her missing child with an impassive expression of someone just getting the layout of the land. Piper didn’t know about Shaun yet and Lauren wasn’t in the right frame of mind to tell her. Hell, she didn’t even know if she wanted to tell _Nick_ – the man who had saved her life.

When she stepped inside the haphazardly built building with Piper, their attention was caught by a quietly muttering woman with tear tracks staining her cheeks. She had dark auburn hair – or so it appeared under the bright fluorescent light above her – and was half a head taller than Lauren, even while slightly bending over a cluttered desk. “Ellie?” Piper called softly in surprise, her voice concerned as she moved around the desk to place a comforting hand on the woman’s arm. “Are you okay?”

“I’m not in the mood to do an interview, Piper. Now is really not the time.” The woman snapped with a voice thick with emotion, but immediately her face crumpled and she buried her face in her hands. “Oh, forgive my abruptness, Piper! I didn’t mean to come off so rude. It’s just, Nick’s taken on a new assignment and somehow Skinny Malone is involved. You know how bad his last run in with that mob was and ever since he left I’ve had a nagging feeling that he won’t be coming back.” Ellie wiped her face and sat down at the desk, eyes downcast to the numerous scribbled on bits of paper with her arms wrapped around her middle as though she were trying to hold herself together.

Piper glanced at Lauren, noting with mild interest the concern for a stranger etched in the older woman’s feminine brow. The single lightbulb illuminating the office cast stark shadows along her jaw and cheekbones and somehow served to quell Piper’s own anxiety for the detective. Lauren looked… _beautiful_. It was just at that moment that the brunette turned her head and shifted her gaze to Piper’s, her dark eyes swimming with so many emotions.

Tearing her gaze away and reigning in her sudden butterflies, the reporter forced her brain to get back to work with a slight shuffle of her feet. “When did he leave? Where was he headed?”

“He left early yesterday morning but didn’t say to where,” Ellie murmured, her brows knitting together in a frown. She appeared to think for a moment before jerking with an apparent realisation, then going to shuffle through some papers on Nick’s desk. “He always keeps a notepad somewhere around here, that’s if he didn’t take it with him of course…yes. Okay, here it is. It says…oh no. It says he suspected the whereabouts of Skinny Malone’s hideout was in Vault 114 hidden deep in Park Street Station.” Ellie looked up, her eyes dulled. “He’s gone to investigate that vault.”

“Fuck!” Piper hissed, vigorously swiping off her cap and running a hand through her hair frustratedly.

“That’s only in the Common right? It’s not that far away, a ten minute walk at most.” Lauren said, glancing between the two distraught women in confusion. Ellie only now seemed to notice her presence.

“Yes, Blue. The Boston Common. One of the most dangerous places in the Commonwealth, what with all the muties, raiders, Gunners and ghouls wandering around out there. Not to mention the all kinds of danger when you add on top of _that_ the Triggermen.”

“Triggermen?”

Ellie’s eyebrows lifted halfway up her forehead in surprise. “You haven’t heard of that lousy lot? Damn, you really must have lived in a vault your whole life.”

Lauren decided to let that comment slide despite the twinge of angered hurt that it spiked in her heart. Piper must have sensed her tense because quickly, the reporter hustled to fill the silence. “I’ll tell you about em later, Blue.” Hazel eyes shot a coded warning to Ellie’s before she continued. “Any chance that he’s just gone walkabout? I mean, Nick’s his own man after all. Maybe he finished with the business there early and decided to take a vacation?”

Piper knew the answer even as she asked, but still, false hope has a way of worming itself inside even the most pragmatic of minds. “No, he promised me he’d come straight back after checking out the vault. The missing person’s family lives here in Diamond City too so even if it wasn’t for his promise to _me_ , he’d return here to give _them_ the news of whether or not their daughter was found in the vault. And security hasn’t seen hide nor hair of him since he left.”

Piper grumbled her frustration under her breath and straightened her back after a moment of silent pondering. She glanced from Ellie to Lauren and back again, a newfound determination in her eyes. “Then I guess I’m gonna be hot on his trail then.”

“What? No, Nick wouldn’t want that Piper. If he’s hurt–”

“I’m going after him, Ellie. It’s what Nick would do if the situation were reversed. Hell, he’s already _done_ that for me before. There’s nothing you can do to change my mind on this but I expect a full box of sugar bombs when I bring ol’ Nicky back in one piece.”

“I can give you a whole lot more than sugar bombs, Piper.”

The unexpected innuendo in the assistant’s voice cast a heavy silence in the room and was responsible for Piper’s blush and Lauren’s surprised lift of her brow. _Did she just…flirt? With another woman? Is that not still against the law?_

The reporter cleared her throat awkwardly and forced a smile, swiping a gloved hand across her forehead as she backed towards the door. “I’ll bring him back, Ellie. I promise.”

 

*************

 

“Piper, slow down for a second!” Lauren called, barely managing to keep her footing on the rotten wooden walkway as she jogged after the reporter who damn near _ran_ out of the detective agency.

“Blue, I–I need to find Nick, I-”

“Yes I heard but you’re not going alone.”

The reporter stopped walking so suddenly that Lauren almost bumped into her. She turned around on her heel, narrowing her eyes at the woman in blue who barely managed to regain her balance in time. “ _What_?”

“I’m coming with you. That man saved my life the other day and I know the area pretty well. Hell – I know the layout of the city like the back of my hand and that _has_ to help you somehow.”

Piper started chewing her bottom lip, her brow furrowed as she recognised the genuine honesty in Lauren’s offer. _She really doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into. And for what? Why would she put her life on the line for Valentine? He’s a synth and she…she…she doesn’t even seem to care about that at all...Oh man. They_ really _don’t make em like they used to._

Breathing out a heavy sigh, Piper shook her head. “No offense intended here, Blue, but you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Boston Common – I should imagine – isn’t the same as it was in your time. It’s dangerous and by that I mean, uber dangerous. The rest of the Commonwealth save for the Glowing Sea is like a _playground_ compared to that place.”

“All the more reason you should have someone watching your back. After all, your leg is still healing.”

“As is your shoulder.” Piper challenged with the hint of a smirk.

“Yes but two sets of eyes are always better than one.”

“And what about dead weight, Blue?”

“Ouch.”

Piper was grinning then, her eyes sparkling as Lauren grinned back. “Why would you want to come with me anyway? Normally people tried to _avoid_ danger. Not to mention the fact that you’d be risking everything for a _synth_.”

Lauren sighed softly and bit her lip, pondering. The woman in front of her was honest, genuine, the kind of person who so clearly _cared_. But was she ready to open up to her about Shaun? Could she trust her with this?

As hazel eyes studied her in the seconds she took to decide, Lauren realised that this was perhaps the most honest gaze she’d seen in a long, long time. Most of her company pre-war was spent with lawyers, police, victims and witnesses, each with their own agenda. Including the judges. It made her expect the worst in people, to the point where she only ever truly trusted Nate. But Piper…Piper seemed different somehow. Sincere. And that was ultimately the reason why she answered honestly this time. “I’m looking for someone who was taken from me.” She blurted, her gaze darting away and to a bedraggled bird that perched itself on a metal roof. “And considering this Nick fellow is supposedly a detective, I have a feeling he might be able to help me find them. Plus that and I couldn’t in good conscience let you go out to what sounds like a total shit-storm on your own.” Her eyes flicked back to Piper who chuckled quietly in response to her bad language. “So, I’m coming with you.”

“Well I appreciate the gesture, Blue, but if you go down there…you might not ever get the chance to find whoever it is your looking for.” The reporter lifted a single brow and pursed her lips before finally asking. “And just _who_ are you looking for?”

Lauren gazed down at the woman standing in front of her, someone who, despite everything that happened in the world and is currently happening, still manages to smile earnestly. If she couldn’t trust Piper with her closely guarded secret, then she highly doubted she could trust _anyone_. So, upon taking in a deep breath, Lauren quietly revealed the rest of her story. “My baby boy,” her voice broke and she had to look away from the emotion her words produced in Piper’s eyes. She always did hate sympathy, even from Nate. “He’s my son and…he was stolen from me, from my husband and I in back in the vault.” Lauren held up her hand as Piper started to speak, effectively silencing the reporter while she took in a deep, steadying breath. Speaking of him out loud caused her emotions to bubble to the surface, but now was not the time to deal with that. “I can’t afford to think about it right now and neither can Nick. We need to find _him_ first before anything else, so…so let’s just focus on finding Nick for now.”

Piper – shell-shocked – could only manage a simple nod, knowing that if she opened her mouth, she wouldn’t be able to stop the impulsive questions from pouring out. But _holy shit_ was this woman out of time full of surprises. “I-I need to tell Nat and get some things ready before we set off. I’ll…meet you at the gates in half an hour alright?”

Lauren nodded and watched the reporter walk away, unaware that in just a few hours’ time, she’d find herself desperately wishing that she’d listened to the reporter’s warning.

 

*******************************

 

Trudging through the murky darkness, Lauren wondered just why the hell she went along with Piper’s idea. Sure, it sounded all well and good in the safety of Diamond City’s walls to go out at night, to slip past slumbering raiders and mutants unscathed before descending into the depths of a subway station to try and find a robotic man who saved her life and could quite possibly hold the means to finding her baby boy.

Their real goal was to surprise Nick’s captors, to hopefully win out a victory with _all three_ of them still alive and kicking by the end of it. But even with Piper’s reassuring words and nods of encouragement, Lauren wasn’t quite feeling so lucky. For starters, the lights of Diamond City didn’t reach the depths of the city streets – the only illumination was the slivers of moonlight finding its way through the dilapidated, skeletal remains of the buildings looming all around them – and secondly, all she had was a 10mm pistol Piper let her borrow. What was supposed to be a five minute walk for the duo ended up taking almost a full hour.

A scuttling, odd shapes and movement in the shadows had them crouch and hold their breath every few minutes, guns already drawn and ready for the unseen enemy that thankfully never came. Each time it passed, Piper blew out a soft breath and straightened with Lauren to creep a few more metres before being spooked once more. It took a lifetime to get there, but finally they reached the Common and stopped for a breather in the back of a broken down military vehicle.

“Almost there, it’s just around the corner.” Lauren murmured softly to Piper who was breathing heavily less than a metre away. The reporter looked over to her – she thinks because it was so damn hard to make _anything_ out – and made a small noise of caution.

“This is Boston Common, Blue. People don’t come back from here. I’ve heard stories of things that would make the hardiest of travellers and mercenaries run away with their tails between their legs.”

She didn’t see it, but Lauren wore the most incredulous look on her face as she replied in a heated whisper. “Well why the hell were you so adamant on coming down here _at night_ then, Piper?!”

The reporter huffed a small, humourless laugh as she rechecked her pistol and patted her coat, offering up a Gumdrop to Lauren before plopping one into her own mouth. “Because _Blue_ , maybe it’s better we don’t actually _see_ whatever it is lurking down here. And with any luck, whatever _it_ is, won’t see _us_ either.”

There were a number of things Lauren could say to contest the reporter’s logic, but the thought that the woman knew what she was doing – what with _surviving_ all her years which couldn’t be any more or less than twenty in a world like this – Lauren decided to trust the reporter’s instincts. In a matter of moments, they had left their relative safety and started making their way down the street, hugging the footpath closest to the buildings on their right. To their left was the park, a sickeningly rotten smell wafting up from the stagnant waters within. It used to be so beautiful, so full of flowers and laughing children and happy families enjoying their day together…now it was dead and lifeless, having only the reflection of the moon on the murky water offering the slightest bit of its once breathtaking beauty. Lauren only hoped that the smell was the only reason why some poor soul blocked off the entry with two thick crisscrossed chains. She assumed the corpse rotting on the pavement nearby was the Good Samaritan responsible for it. Maybe he had a heart attack and that’s why he died. Maybe there was nothing really dangerous down here at all.

Suddenly, Piper pulled her down into a crouch with considerable urgency, the reporter keeping her hand on Lauren’s forearm as she tilted her head and listened to the darkness.

Silence.

A moment passed and there was still only silence.

Just as she was getting ready to whisper a question to the reporter, Lauren heard it. A barely audible scrape. A whisper of friction between some _thing_ and the dry road beneath. But even though brief, it sounded much bigger than a radroach. Piper stiffened suddenly, her hand clenching tighter around Lauren’s forearm as she caught sight of whatever it was as it stepped directly into a sliver of moonlight. Its face was gnarled and rotten, flesh puckered and in some parts _missing_ entirely from the bone. The way it moved was much worse than its image – sharp, unchecked movements where it jerked its head in their direction, revealing crazed eyes and a snarling snout, permanently grinning from the absence of its lips. It stepped forward once, throwing its entire body into the step like it was simply too much effort. It fell into shadow as it came closer, barely three blocks away, but that wasn’t why Lauren’s gut twisted. Another _thing_ with hanging limbs and rotting flesh stepped out from one of the alleyways, instinct telling Lauren that simply running from these walking corpses would not be enough to keep herself alive. One of them – another who stepped out into the street behind the second – wore what looked like a mouldy shirt and nothing else, alerting Lauren to the possibility that perhaps these were people once. They growled and hissed almost in unison, following the first _thing_ ’s lead, all of which headed in their direction.

Piper started shifting slowly, her gloved hand moving around on the ground but for what exactly, Lauren couldn’t tell. That is, until the reporter threw it.

The crack of the rock hitting the pavement on the other side of the pack of monsters had its desired effect, echoing in the square not unlike the sound of a gunshot in the still night air. The three _things_ turned, harsh snarls and howls that sounded therefrom made Lauren’s blood run cold.

_Dear God, what has this world become?_

Without wasting a second, Piper pulled Lauren up and forcefully dragged her _towards the park_ with nary a word nor even a look of reassurance. It was panic. She had no time to protest when the reporter lead her under the chains barring the entrance, scrambling on hands and knees as fast and as quietly as they could to the relative shelter underneath a deadened tree. The putrid lake was now merely a metre away, its surface bubbling and spitting, mocking the quiet ticking of Lauren’s Geiger counter as she crouched next to the reporter who peeked around the tree’s trunk. Just over Piper’s shoulder, about a yard away was Park Street Station where a lone Protectron clumped around, patrolling its beat even after two hundred years. She nudged the reporter gently, gesturing wordlessly to the robot but the reporter shook her head and lifted her chin in the direction of the monsters they’d barely managed to avoid moments earlier.

“Wait for the ghouls to pass.” She whispered quietly. “There are always more of them in the shadows, trust me.”

Lauren peeked around the trunk to see them swaying in place, snapping loose jaws at each other as though angry when out of nowhere a quick stripe of red cut through the air with a buzz, striking one of the monstrosities hard in the shoulder. But it didn’t drop. Instead it screamed with new abandon, howling like a soul in agony as it tore off running towards to the robot.

The way it _moved_ …

It was terrifying.

Not only was its mouth hanging open, lined with cracked and yellowed teeth, its gangly limbs were thrown out in every which way like it was being electrocuted as it ran. Stiff limbs twitched and cracked as the other _ghouls_ quickly followed suit, screaming and snarling and snapping as they sprinted with unbelievable speed towards the robot who only just managed to drop the first one before the others piled onto its metal frame. The light from the top of the robot’s head peeked through the mass of moving limbs for split seconds, enough for Lauren to realise that it wasn’t just _three_ of them, there were easily over a dozen that had materialised from the shadows. Just as the reporter said.

Piper cursed under her breath, readying her pistol and shifting closer to Lauren whose attention was suddenly caught on the lake behind her. She could’ve _sworn_ -

“Blue, these guys are a buttload of nasty.” Piper whispered urgently, one hand holding her pistol while the other steadied herself on the tree. “If they see you, they’ll come running and won’t stop unless dead, legless or eating you. _Always_ shoot for the head and if you can, climb something.” At the same time, they both glanced up to the deadened tree, its precarious limbs splintered and rotten above them. _Not this one,_ Piper mouthed with a hint of a nervous smile. She turned back around and kept watching the mass of ghouls as the Protectron tried valiantly to fight them off, firing beams of red almost desperately as more ghouls piled on it until finally, the robot fell with a whine and a loud crash of metal. Piper breathed out a heavy sigh.

Disappointed.

And dangerously unaware.

Unaware of the way Lauren’s mouth dropped open as the mass of bubbles she’d been eyeing behind them began rising, _moving_ until finally a form took shape and her hand grabbed Piper who _then_ took notice with a stifled gasp of horror. “Oh fuck, a _Behemoth! Move!_ ” She pulled Lauren with her just as the mass of irradiated bubbles parted to reveal a hulking green monstrosity who let out an earthshattering roar, lifting up from the water what looked like a large metal anchor in one of its hands. Piper started shooting at the ghouls rapidly, running straight towards Park Street Station and yelling out _something_ to Lauren in tow who was also following Piper’s lead _and_ her advice in shooting them right in the head. She managed to get one, noticing three more drop from Piper’s precision, but stumbled when the Behemoth took his first ground shuddering step on land. The reporter managed to steady herself, still firing and somehow pulling Lauren along too but they weren’t fast enough. The ghouls were sprinting, shrugging off bullet after bullet that didn’t lodge itself inside their skull. It wasn’t long before the first of the monsters took a lunge for them.

Lauren managed to pivot in time to avoid a bite to her throat, shoving the rotting thing to the ground but wasn’t fast enough to stop the second that bit into her left bicep. She growled in pain, feeling jagged teeth sink into her skin and tear at her flesh, and finally managed to strike the damn thing’s skull _hard_ with the handle of her gun and began firing off more rounds as the thing dropped. She lifted a boot and curb stomped the fucker with a vengeful growl, not brave enough to contemplate the type of diseases these things could carry. At least not _yet_ , anyway.

Piper meanwhile was grappling with two at a time, the barrel of her pistol pointing over one of the ghoul’s shoulder. She aimed – a guestimate, really – and fired, satisfied with the spray of red matter from behind the ghouls in front. She kicked at their knees while they clawed at her arms and shoulders, her muscles straining with the effort of holding them back and she damn near lost her balance more times than she could count.

Lauren suddenly came out of nowhere and pulled one of them off, shooting the other in the head before pistol whipping the first and putting it down for good. More howls erupted and the duo began back tracking, not daring to turn their backs to the ghouls in fear of being blindsided and instead kept shooting.  Neither of them wanted to acknowledge the large beast swinging its anchor wildly at the ghouls brave enough to attack it near its lake. Lauren’s through process when it came to the behemoth was exactly and precisely: _fuck that shit_.

When Piper’s back touched the wall of the subway station, she grabbed Lauren by the shoulder and pulled her with her towards the entrance, screaming in surprise when a chunk of concrete smashed against the wall right in front of them. It was Lauren’s turn to pull her companion around the corner of the wall and to the entrance of Park Street Station before the big green beast battling with his own crowd of ghouls could get another handful of concrete and peg it at them. She was just about to tear open the door when the sound of scuffling feet behind them caught her attention. She spun around just in time to see Piper punch a ghoul right in the throat, her arm rearing back for a second but Lauren caught sight of another coming right for her. This one, however, was glowing a bright green colour, its eyes wild and crazed with a mouth full of grinning teeth. She went to shoot at it but it was too late, the ghoul was upon her, its weight shoving her to the ground before she could do a damn thing about it. As she struggled against its weight, moving her face out of the way of its snapping jaws and glaring eyes, its aura burning her skin as she struggled for a breath of fresh air, she could see Piper land a killing blow to another ghoul’s head with the butt of her pistol. But they just kept _coming_.

Lauren had half a mind about her to yell out to Piper to just _run_ , that there’s no need for them _both_ to die here tonight, but before she could utter a word a growling mass rocketed into the ghoul on top of her, sending it sprawling onto the concrete. She was roughly pulled to her feet by the reporter and dragged towards the doors of the station, Piper still firing like mad before following Lauren through the double doors and slamming it shut.

“Holy _fuck!_ ” Piper yelled, panting, struggling with all her might against the door just to keep it closed while Lauren quickly toppled a large postal box and dragged it over. The damn thing was only big enough to keep one door closed, so Piper was still struggling against the other when they heard it. A loud, clear bark.

Lauren’s head snapped up and she looked to Piper quickly, remembering the mass that tackled what surely would have been the monster that killed her. “Wait a second,” She stepped up to the door, aiding Piper in keeping it closed for a second while she listened. _It couldn’t be_. There it was again, another bark that was most certainly _not_ from a ghoul. “Dogmeat!” Lauren called, to which she was replied with another loud, clear series of anxious barks by way of reply. He couldn’t get to her, couldn’t see her and by the sound of his whimpering he was worried. Or hurt. Or…or being eaten. “Piper, open the door just a little.”

“Are you crazy, Blue?! Do you want to get eaten?!”

Frantically, she checked her gun and pleaded with Piper. “Just trust me, Piper. Open it, just a crack.”

The reporter groaned loudly, berating herself for even listening to this woman even while she was gradually letting the door be pushed open inch by inch until a nose poked through, then a furry head, then furry shoulders and then the rest of a furry dog before both her and Lauren slammed the door shut against the writhing, howling ghouls outside. They mustn’t have noticed the large dog scurrying around their legs while they tried to toppled the doors, _large_ being an understatement because in all her time in the world, Piper had never seen a dog quite like this one. She watched with her back against the door as the dog with a snout covered in glowing green blood greeted Lauren with what sounded like a happy little yelp and the rapid wagging of his tail. The woman herself seemed beyond pleased to see him, making Piper’s brow lift in confusion.

“Blue, why did you just risk our lives for that mutt and _why_ are you petting it? He could have _rabies_ or something.”

Lauren scoffed at that, returning the hand she used to pet him to the still wobbling door. “His name is Dogmeat. I lost him just before I got into Diamond City. I…I was afraid I’d never see him again.” The woman looked up, breathing hard but managed a smile in Piper’s direction who had now slumped her entire weight against the door beside her. “He has saved my life at least _twice_ now and before you ask, no he doesn’t have rabies.”

The reporter’s eyebrows lifted, but she said nothing as the dog shook himself and gazed up at her curiously. She smiled softly, bravely reaching out a hand and letting the dog approach her who more than happily let her pet his head. “Cute.” She murmured softly, before chuckling breathlessly, trying to ignore the growling monstrosities on the other side of the door. “Aw Blue, now I feel bad for almost keeping him locked outside with the ghouls.”

“Piper, they…they looked like people but…different. Kind of like zombies but much, much worse. At least zombies are supposed to be _slow_ , but those things…” She blew out a heavy breath, her face pale. “It’s amazing we even got out of there alive.”

“And in one piece.” Piper murmured quietly in agreement, eyeing the bleeding wound on Lauren’s bicep. “When we get back to Diamond City you need to get a few shots, Blue. Hell, we both do. Ghouls aren’t known for being clean.”

The woman nodded absentmindedly, turning to press her back against the still shuddering door while she retrieved a bottle of purified water from her belt and poured water onto her wound. She absolutely _refused_ to think too much on the bacteria and diseases those things could’ve been carrying. There was still easily over half a dozen stiches worth of flesh that needed attention. “Were they people once?” She asked, her voice soft.

Piper breathed in deeply, sliding her back down the door until she was seated. Her gaze settled on the woman beside her who – despite probably having the absolute crap scared out of her – looked more saddened than terrified. She spared a glance at the stairwell leading into the bowels of the station, determining from the lack of new attackers and Dogmeat’s disinterest in anything down there that they were safely alone, before answering.

“Yeah, they were. Once upon a time anyway. Extreme exposure to radiation rots more than just you’re your hairline, Blue. It also rots your sanity and there’s not a damn thing anyone can do when they’re that far gone.”

Lauren nodded absently and Piper watched as she scrubbed a hand across her face tiredly. “So they don’t feel anything, right? Their condition looks…painful.”

Piper took a moment to ponder, unsure herself of whether there was anything left inside of who they once were. She’d gazed into the crazed eyes of more than a few of those things in her lifetime and never has she ever seen a gaze that _wasn’t_ full of bloodlust and murder and nor has she seen any pain in those eyes either. So her answer was no, probably not, but in all honesty she had no clue. However there was no way she was going to let that doubt fester in Lauren, to cause a moment of hesitation should she cross the paths of ghouls again because that could very well cost Lauren her life. She already looked so disturbed by the thought, that Piper immediately answered “No, Blue. They don’t feel a thing.” The relief on Lauren’s face almost drew a smirk to Piper’s lips, but the reporter was already too busy trying to distract herself from the thought of: what if they _did_?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been trying to cast Lauren in a different light since the beginning, seeing as though she's new to this whole combat, kill for survival thing - not to mention the Commonwealth's irradiated monsters - and I wanted to highlight how, realistically, she'd be questioning and relying a whole heck of a lot on Piper and her knowledge of the world as it is now. That is until Lauren forges her own path after learning all this, but I digress. That is for future chapters ;)
> 
> As always, feedback is welcome and the next chapter shouldn't take too long now that I've got the ball rolling again!


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